The Third Odyssey - An Elysian Tale [Redux]

[Crimson Lionheart]

Prologue: The City of the Worlds Desire (330 - 1444)​

Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, had always been destined for great things. Sitting among the edge of both Europe and Asia, it would be founded to serve as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great, after whom the city was named, in 330AD. A bridge between the recently reunified Western and Eastern Roman Empires, it had originally been renamed Nova Roma prior to its renaming, serving to act as a symbolic center for the new period of Roman splendor as the mother city continued to decline in fortune. Barely seventy years after the death of its namesake, Rome would be sacked for the first time in eight hundred years.

Constantinople, the Queen of Cities. Art by RadoJavor​

As the West collapsed and fell into darkness, the Eastern Empire survived and preserved the light of Rome, inheriting the mantle and the torch for a dominion that had once ruled a vast majority of the known world. Constantinople would sit between two continents and two cities, and for centuries, it would sit as the largest and wealthiest city in all of Europe. It would become a capital of splendor and opulence, protected by impenetrable defenses that enclosed magnificent palaces and churches. It would flourish into one of the largest cities in the world. Constantine had intentionally built the city to rival that of the grandest city in all of antiquity, and through centuries of struggle and triumph, Constantinople would continue to hold the torch for nearly nine hundred years.

But it was not meant to last.

Multiple times during its long history, the light of Rome was threatened multiple times and almost snuffled out between the ambitions of various barbarian rulers and the many enemies that the Eastern Empire would make. In the seventh century, the Eastern Empire and Christendom as a whole would see its greatest enemy arrive from the deserts of Arabia, led by its newfound ‘prophet’ Muhammad. His followers had come close to extinguishing the light of Rome, alongside being threatened by various barbarian statelets and opportunistic rivals, as the emerging tide of Islam swept through the decaying Persians and most of Asia and Africa. From this point onwards, the Empire would struggle immensely to regain control of her eastern territories, suffering from strength to weakness in every conflict.

Despite brief periods of reemergence and restoration, the opulence of Constantinople would make the capital an extremely valuable target for those who sought to conquer it. Centuries of Roman splendor would be undone following the disaster of the overwhelmingly crushing defeat at the Battle of Manzikert, resulting in the loss of Anatolia to the Turks. As Constantinople remained the mind of the Empire, the Eastern Empire had lost its heart, and centuries of constant conflict between the Turks and the Greeks would bleed away whatever remained of its spirit.

A 15th-century depiction of the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, c.1204​

Despite misfortune, a promising recovery among imperial fortunes would see Constantinople flourish once more. But the Empire would suffer a devastating blow not from its Muslim rivals, but from a terrible strike from Christendom itself, as Constantinople would be sacked by Latin Crusaders in 1204. Its devastation would leave the Empire far poorer, smaller, and ultimately less able to defend itself from the Turkish and Slavic conquests that followed. The Latins would take the city and hold it for decades after shattering the former Eastern Empire into several rump states, declaring their own Latin Empire. But the Latins and their church were never able to maintain their new state, and sixty years after its brutal sacking, Nicean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos would reclaim Constantinople and restore the Eastern Empire once more from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II.

As the Empire had lost much of its economic resources, it would never reclaim its wealth and splendor from ancient times. From the very moment that the Empire would be reunited, its new dynasty had its hands full the moment they ascended to the throne. The Turks of Anatolia would often attack imperial territory and strike the Empire hard while doing so, while the Palailogos were forced to fight alongside Slavic opportunists such as Bulgaria and Serbia, who had sought to build their own empires at the Empire’s expense. A loss of land in the east and to the west, followed by two devastating civil wars over a bitter fight to control the Imperial throne, would be further struck into chaos as the pandemic and pestilence of the Black Death would bring the Empire to its very knees. Constantinople frequently stood on the brink of destruction, and by the end of the 14th century, the internal and external strife had brought led the Empire to consist only of Constantinople itself and a few other isolated enclaves.

As centuries of splendor gave way to misery, the city endured by a thread. A Greek tragedy of the highest caliber had befallen the city, and any attempt at diplomatic or military successes that past and present Emperors had tried to fight for had ended in vain or petty squabble. Manuel II, who had succeeded in retaking some territory and held it until the end of his reign, had only prolonged the destruction of the Roman dream. Not even a fraction of what it once was, the fight for the survival of a dying empire and its legacy would continue to wear down Constantinople in chains.

Detail from The Middle King by Benozzo Gozzoli,1459–1461, widely believed to represent Ioannes VIII during the Council of Florence.​

Manuel’s son and successor, Ioannes VIII, would spend his reign and dedicate his life to ensuring that the dream of Rome would not perish in vain. After spending so long and so much of his reign to preserve the Empire of his ancestors, the Emperor would become obsessed with finding even the faintest glimmer of hope. Surrounding himself in the comfort of ancient books, he sought the wisdom of wiser men who had ruled on the throne before him. Desire would transform into obsession, as the Emperor would surrender himself within the confines of the Imperial Library for multiple days at a time. Many of the advisors to the Emperor would begin to see increasingly erratic behavior from the Emperor in his search, as days started to persist into weeks.

In the late half of 1444, the Emperor would finally receive the answers he had been looking for. He didn't know it, but he was about to change the world

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 1: The Last Dawn of Constantinople (1444-1445)​

It was a miserable morning. The grey clouds of the skies upon the Queen of Cities had faded and drifted apart from the overcast shade that had blanketed Constantinople as if the legacies of their forefathers and ancestors had wept for the tragedy that had befallen the magnificence of the dream that had once been Rome. The streets and its buildings had been left dilapidated as puddles of murky water were walked across its inhabitants trodded throughout their daily lives with a looming sense of dread. The innocent and the youthful had not known the horrors of the future that had sought to suffocate whatever remained of the precious freedom that lingered, for they did not know the implications of what had occurred.

In the Imperial Palace, the grey clouds barely allowed any sunlight to pour through the glass of the windows, matching the atmosphere inside the building and the rest of the city. Basellius Ioannes VIII would look upon his realm, the vestigial realm that had been ruled by his father and ancestors, and despaired. A messenger had brought to him to be the bearer of the tragedy he had anticipated. The crusaders of Varna, organized to prey upon a crucial moment of weakness of the dreaded Turkish yoke, had ended in a catastrophic disaster for Christendom. The Turks, successors to the Arabs that had battered Anatolia in generations that had long past, held a knife to the throat of the Romans. To its west, opportunistic rivals in the form of Serbs and Hungarians were eager to carve up the pieces of the dying empire and to build their own dominion on the bones and ruins of the Greeks. And all around them, the Latins battled among themselves and challenged their enemies to secure the wealth of the Aegean for themselves.

Ioannes VIII didn't react to the news openly, but news of the disaster was sure to reach his subjects in due time. The Varna Crusade had ended in a massacre. In his heart, it was a confirmation of what he had always known ever since he had taken to the throne. He was the last of his kind. The dream that was Rome was to perish in his final days, and the world that he had fought to protect would be destroyed by his enemies. He had already sacrificed so much of himself to have surrendered himself to fate, just to buy an Empire on its deathbed enough time to find even a glimmer of hope through the dark storm clouds that gathered across both sides of the Marmara. He had lost his heart through the death of two of his wives. He had almost lost his faith and the faith of his people by consenting to the union of the Greek and Roman churches, just to appease the damned Latins who didn’t care about the fate of the Hellenics that had inherited the mantle of their forefathers.

King Władysław III of Poland in the Battle of Varna, by Jan Matejko. The decisive Ottoman victory and the death of Wladyslaw III of Poland, resulting in a pivotal moment in Eastern European history​

Ioannes didn’t even flinch anymore, long having grown accustomed to the worst. Even on the best of days, the world was determined to ensure that Constantinople and the Hellenic world would suffer for whatever sins they had committed. The fire within his eyes was burning into an ember that was starting to make his brother worried. The Emperor would retreat into the Imperial Library, which had increasingly become a secondary home for Ioannes as he scoured through whatever knowledge he could find. Mountains of ancient books would be piled across the vast expanse, stacked upon each other orderly or sprawled across in a pile after a stack had given away to its own weight. Almost every single inch and shelf of the library would be covered by the Emperor, and yet Ioannes didn’t find anything he was looking for. An overload of information made him feel like he was merely back to the beginning of his fruitless search, one that was wearing down Ioannes as he trudged through the books across the shelves.

Grabbing a thick chronicle from one of the shelves he hadn’t crossed over yet. Ioannes’s attention would be caught after removing the book from the shelf, his focus drawn upon a hole within the wall that seemed hollow and empty beyond the hard stone it was built from. Inside, barely within the cover of darkness aside from whatever light from the library had crept inside, Ioannes could barely make out what was inside the room. A hidden cache of information, from parchment and books that had been kept inside a self-contained room, was preserved to keep them safe. Ioannes gasped in surprise at the discovery, his mind quickly flaring up at the discovery he had just made. Whatever information that had been kept inside of the room was preserved and sealed inside, not to allow access from the outside world, but to preserve or even keep the contents of what was inside safe. Was it an ancient imperial secret? Was it something that not even the Emperors before him had even known about. Fueled by a curiosity that had remained dormant, the Emperor stuck his finger inside of the hole and began to dig further and further past the stone. Poor maintenance within its construction would cause the structure to begin falling apart at the seams. Stone would dissolve at his touch like powder within his hand, falling upon the ground like a handful of sand.

Skepticism began to fade as the Emperor clawed away at the secret wall, bringing in the attention of scribes who would be drawn into whatever their Emperor was doing. Stepping aside the mess, the scribes would help Ioannes move the shelf away from the wall and aid in the removal of the substance that was fading at the seams. After a couple of extra hands, the weak stone wall would give way and collapse upon itself, showering the Emperor and the scribes in a cloud of weak ash. A scribe would hold a candle in his hand to investigate the dark room, finding a long abandoned room filled with a treasure trove of documents and parchments filled with schematics. Dust filled the room as centuries of isolation away from the world would be opened back up once more. Ioannes quickly began to scour the room for information in his search. Whoever had kept this information sealed away was protecting it from harm, and from the weak fragility of the wall holding it, it was incredibly old and remarkably well-preserved.

A hand would touch a collection of notes that hadn’t seen the light in hundreds of years, as Ioannes would make a startling discovery. Within the notes were a series of schematics detailing a specialized dromon with the intention for deep-sea capabilities, far exceeding the range from crossing the seas. Its intention would be jolted down in the written word of its author, detailing the intention to use these designs to embark on a traditional expedition to Varangian Vinland that would never materialize. Taking inspiration from the Ancient Roman vessels that once piled the treacherous seas between the coasts of Hispania and the lands of the distant Celts in ages past, Ioannes looked at the documents with utter bewilderment as his hand drew a line with a finger downward across a parchment paper. There, Ioannes VIII would stare at the name of an exalted leader from ages past who had once been responsible for leading the empire to greatness following its greatest defeat.

“Alexios Kommenos…” Ioannes quietly muttered to himself before he suddenly turned around to the scribes in the room, filled with a sense of urgency in his voice as his tone flustered between that excitement and anxious shock. “Send word to my brother to meet with me here immediately! He needs to know this!”

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Konstantine XI would stand before his elder brother looking at the discovery that had been made, folding his arms and generally looking displeased despite the excited bewilderment of his elder brother. Unlike his sibling, Konstantine was far more stoic and served as a skilled general of whatever remained of the imperial forces. He had been primarily a soldier first and lacked the leadership his brother commanded. But what he lacked in leadership, he made up for in trust to the Emperor, enough that he was designated as regent during Ioannes VIII’s journeys away from Constantinople from what felt like a lifetime ago. He had heard all of the plans that Ioannes had made in the past, and how desperation almost led to him selling its soul for the chance for salvation.

He was skeptical and looked at Ioannes. He had long made peace for fighting for his home until his last breath, but he hadn’t seen the spark of hope burn within Ioannes eyes like this for many years. Everything seemed too far-fetched, far too much of a gamble that didn’t even show any realistic chance of having any sort of success. He sighed and shook his head for a long while as he finally broke the silence that had existed within the room. “....I don’t think this will work. You really believe this is what will save us?”
Ioannes looked back at his brother with glee, nodding his head and holding the schematic in his hands. “Yes! I can assure you Konstantinos, this is exactly what will save us!” He told him before putting it back down on the table. “These documents were preserved for centuries! This room was sealed prior to the Fourth Crusade. Alexios III might have lost the city, but he had the foresight to make sure that everything inside this room was kept safe. The Latins never found this room as they sacked the city. And now, thanks to him, we finally have our chance!”

Konstantinos didn’t understand the enthusiasm in his voice. Everything just seemed so foolish to him about it. “I don’t understand this Ioannes. Why now? What good do these schematics have for us when the enemy is at the gates? We are fated to be conquered, and rightfully so, for we have betrayed Christ when we surrendered ourselves to the Latins and their damned Council.”

Ioannes didn’t wish to express his grand idea to his brother until the time was right, but it seemed that right now, it was the perfect chance to express his vision. “My brother, you don’t realize what a monumental discovery this is. This is a chance to start again! Unless we do nothing, we shall not last another decade. God has given us a chance to start anew. We can languish under the Turkish yoke, or we can survive another day and spare our people!”

“Are you proposing we…abandon Constantinople?” Konstantinos prodded the question, feeling a deep feeling within his stomach. Even though the city and what little remained of the Empire was on the verge of complete destruction, he couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning the city. It was an unthinkable option, and he was prepared to erupt into a tirade of furious anger at his elder brother's mere suggestion. But yet, he didn’t raise his voice. The swelling of anger inside of him didn’t lash out at Ioannes, instead, he listened.

“Konstantinos, I know this a desperate thought, but these are desperate times. This might be our one chance to secure a better future for our people. We will spare our subjects a lifetime of suffering under Osmans rule. Imagine, if you will, that Roman men and women living prosperous lives. Children who wouldn’t ever know slavery or the suffering we have endured. The elderly spend their days living in peace after spending a lifetime knowing nothing but war and heartache. I know this sounds outlandish, but believe me, this might be our best chance. A new chance to start again. A new chance to be reborn. I’m speaking of an Odyssey, just like Aeneas, fleeing from our own Troy.” Ioannes spoke to him.

Konstantinos remained deathly quiet, contemplating something within thought. Had this been any other man, he would have thought that this would have been nothing but nonsense. Abandoning Constantinople to the enemies of Christendom? Leaving their homeland? It was something unthinkable to him, and yet, he looked at Ioannes like he had been a young man again. Ioannes had this peculiar aura around him within his voice, his eyes twinkling and burning like that of a young man ready to accomplish anything. But the more he thought about it, the more that the idea seemed to form within his head, and the more that he found himself leaning into his proposal.

Ioannes placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “This is the way, brother. I know deep down you believe this as well. This is the destiny of our people and that of Rome. What do you think brother? I understand your hesitance, but I wouldn’t want anyone else at my side.”

Konstantinos was about to speak up again, but he stopped himself, left in pause at his idea. Ioannes seemed deeply committed to this idea, but he knew him better than anyone else. He had tried and failed many times before, and here he was, sounding almost like a madman with an ambition. Even if his ideas sounded crazy, the logic behind them was sound enough for feasibility. Eventually, the stoic sibling sighed once again before chuckling softly. “So…where do we start?”

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Within the following week, Ioannes VIII summoned his court and every figure within Imperial authority that still respected Constantinople. Within a short period of time, the Emperor documented the nature of his discovery and the extremely ambitious plan to abandon Europe entirely. Konstantinos remained troubled at the thought of leaving the city, but his depression would change into bewilderment at a virtually unanimous agreement upon the summoned court. While there were some naysayers within the assembled court, none of them would reject it outright after listening to Ioannes VIII expand his plan into detail. Critics of the plan would be silenced, and Konstantinos understood that aside from their fascination of the grand journey, many of the figures assembled came to an understanding that they had nothing left to lose.

With a unanimous acceptance of the flight from Europe occurring throughout the council, every single effort would be made by the Imperial government to prepare themselves for the dangerous journey ahead of them. Even despite the nobility of his goal, the reality existed that it was nothing more than a gamble. Vinland hadn’t made contact with Europe in centuries, and all information about the distant northern settlements of the region was based on information that was centuries old. Ioannes VIII knew to journey towards the west, but from there, the course and length of their flight were unknown. Supplies such as crop seeds, livestock, and all supplies needed to prevent starvation among the fleet would become the priority of the imperial government.

Ioannes VIII would focus all of his efforts on overseeing the preparations and organizing Constantinople into a flurry of activity, as the official declaration was made within the coming days following the discovery in the imperial library. Logistics would immediately become questioned among the council, as the fleet would simply have no idea exactly the immensity of the grand ocean beyond the coastlines of Europe. The Emperor’s prior obsession with finding hope would metamorphose into a sense of protection, and with so much of his attention focused on the flight, the Emperor would no longer focus on any lesser matters that didn't require his full attention or weren't focused on the fleet.

Within the organization of the fleet, the Emperor would be approached by Georgios Sphrantez, a close confidant of the imperial family who had served his father and was a good friend of his brother Konstantinos. Sphrantzes would suggest that space be allocated on the fleet for a collection of the most important books and scrolls within the imperial library be allocated to join along the fleet. The knowledge needed to build an empire, from a collection of books and scrolls to the great works of the wise minds of history would be worth its weight in gold. Around the same time, Johannes Grandt, a skilled German mercenary would arrive in Constantinople to aid the Empire. To the surprise of many, the mercenary would successfully recreate Greek Fire on an incredibly limited scale based on ancient scrolls stored within the hidden cache in the imperial library.

Within the week following the early preparations for the fleet organization, Ioannes’s cousin would arrive at Constantinople after journeying to the city across the Aegean. A brilliant mind and second in line on the imperial throne, Theophilos would learn upon the sheer scale of what was being organized within the dockyards of Constantinople and would make a compelling argument for the vast reserve of silk to be included in the fleet. The methods of production, along with the knowledge and reserve to produce such silk, would provide a potent luxury good to establish trade within Vinland. But unlike the other suggestions, if the silk was not taken, Theophilos suggested that all ties and knowledge to the silk be utterly destroyed, lest the Turks seize and claim it for themselves.

As the weeks began to roll, much of Constantinople would see an influx of additional labour and supplies from the populace. In what could only be described as organized chaos, the doomed city would see many of the buildings within the capital deconstructed to aid in the construction of more ships through the additional help of its inhabitants. An enormous influx of wood and stone would aid shipwrights in constructing what was swelling into a vast fleet, while very brick would be included in the increasingly vast surplus of supplies. Adding to the livestock, grain, food stocks, and crop seeds as agricultural needs would soon be weighed down by timber and stone.

Thousands of extra hands would act to aid Constantinople’s preparations for the flight from Europe, as social classes blended together and found solace in being united for a single purpose. With such attention, it would inevitably gain the attention of outside powers. With an unofficial but accepted fate that the city would inevitably fall to the Turks, the southern holdings of the Empire still remained intact yet isolated. The Venetians and Genoese, the dominant Latin powers seeking to build an empire in the eastern Mediterranean, would both make extremely lucrative offers to the Imperial government over the invaluable strategic and economic position of the Empire’s southern holdings.

Genoa expressed a desire to increase their desire of economic penetration in the Aegean and Black Seas, which would be solidified easily by selling the Despotate of Morea to the Genoese. The Venetians were far more powerful and would be grateful for the transfer of Greek holdings in the southern highlands in exchange for a sizable portion of ships and supplies to aid the Romans.

Another offer would be considered, rejecting both offers outright and granting direct independence of the Morean Desptoate outright to the Emperor’s other brother, Theodoros. Constantinople and Greece did not forgive and forget the tragedy that the Fourth Crusade had caused, and while proud minds sought to reject the Latins in their deals, it was a deal that couldn’t have been refused. Especially not with what was at stake. In the end, while expressing gratitude for their offer, Ioannes VIII would accept the far more pragmatic Venetian deal and transfer the Morea to the Serene Republic’s control. It was a heavy price to pay for the loss of the remaining holdings of the empire, but Ioannes VIII believed it was the right price to pay for salvation.

As the Genoese returned home, the Venetians were overjoyed at the offer, at the price of draining the dwindling Roman treasury to a mere fraction of what had once been left. Venetian captains who had sold their vessels for the journey would directly approach the Emperor and his advisors, learning of their plans to cross the great Western Ocean. But it was a journey that was fraught with danger and calamity. From piracy, a loss of supplies, or even the dreaded seas themselves.

The most influential captain among the group, Delfino Delfin, had offered to use his connections as a member of one of the original founding families of the Republic to acquire a portion of the famed Arsenal of Venice for Roman use at another heavy price, further bringing the exhausted treasury to the point of near collapse. It would reduce the imperial ability to purchase food and other supplies, but the added protection of an extra fleet of ships would give us a sharp advantage for any battles yet to come. Konstantinos believed that conflict was inevitable, as the rapid growth of the fleet would be an invaluable target for pirates.

As the fleet began to swell, and as the Imperial Palace would be stripped from almost all belongings that hadn’t been stored among the fleet or merely salvaged to prevent its desecration, Ioannes VIII would receive a meeting from two esteemed but important figures. An Ottoman prince, born in Constantinople after his grandfather's defeat in a failed attempt for the imperial throne, and a former Ottoman officer who had rebelled from Turkish service and journeyed to the city in search of support. Both men had learned of the impending flight of the Romans and requested some of their retinues to be allocated on board, but with the final preparations being made, there was only enough space for only one group on board. One of these men and their followers were to stay behind in the doomed city, but both men would make a promise not to share the plans to the enemy.

Orhan Celebi, feared punishment at the hands of his cousin and had never returned to the Ottoman Sultanate on the implied threat of execution for the crimes of his grandfather. The Turkish prince, however, was well versed in the tactics of the feared Jannisary corps and offered himself as a general after their landing in Vinland. In addition, Orhan held an incredibly strong claim to the Ottoman throne, and should he remain behind, would challenge his cousin for control of the throne to distract the Turks for long enough to allow the Greeks to flee the Aegean.

The other figure, named Gjergi Kastrioti, was an Albanian lord and military commander who was greatly feared by the Turks for his martial and leadership brilliance in rebelling against Turkish rule. A former Janissary and a military genius, he had been fighting against the Turkish onslaught for many years within his mountainous homeland of Albania. But it was a rebellion that couldn’t hold out forever, and he knew that when he fell, the homeland he had fought for would suffer a horrible wrath when the Ottomans would inevitably conquer it. He had offered himself as a brilliant commander, and requested with permission, to allow himself and his subjects space upon the fleet.

For some time, Ioannes VIII remained quiet until he finally spoke with a great deal of sorrow in his voice. There was only enough space for one group, and ultimately, the choice would be taken that Orhan and his followers would be taken upon the fleet. Skanderbeg would accept his fate, left bitterly disappointed and heartbroken, yet burning with a strong resolve to see his rebellion through to the better end. In a gesture of goodwill, Ioannes VIII would grant the remaining virals of Greek Fire to Skanderburg, aiding his offensive into Turkish lands to draw attention away from the fleet and to stymie any pursuit.

By the early weeks of January 1445, after exhausting every single remaining resource and dedicating everything to the momentous journey ahead of them, the day would finally come. The Grand Fleet was ready, and a journey into the unknown would lay ahead of the Romans. Half of the city would be undone, as every single wooden plank would be used to construct ships. Every single supply, relic, and chosen secret would be selected and placed onboard, taking the very essence of over a thousand years of imperial civilization onto the fleet. The Dream of Rome itself would be carried onto the fleet.

In the early hours of the morning, before dawn, Ioannes VIII would attend the last liturgy in Justintinian’s great church, dressed in complete imperial regalia as the people of the city and from all classes would gather around the Ecumenical Patriarch. Songs and prayers permeate the walls of the Hagia Sophia, reverbing off the buildings and being carried across the streets of Constantinople in one final rapturous display of faith and unity before the unknown. For a brief moment, within the confines of their faith and a sense of brotherhood, the people of the city would forget about the troubles that had befallen them.

It would be the last moment that Constantinople would be united in their church, for as soon as they embarked, not a soul would ever return back to their former home. As the liturgy came to an end and the sun would rise over the final dawn of the city, the Emperor and his brother would embark before the dock. Certain objects from the old city would be taken along with them in their journey. A brick from the palace walls, a tile from its floors, a jar of dirt from the garden. And above all, an Icon of Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, is opened through the ruined streets of the city. Thousands of people would follow behind the icon with reverent devotion, chanting in hymns as they approached the docklands.

For a brief instant, the ruined capital would recover the life that had been stolen from her. Two centuries of misery would vanish over the next few hours, as the final preparations would be made. Thousands of people, from clergymen and merchants to noble and commoners would begin to find their positions in the fleet. So many voices, faces and colors under the morning sun would begin to settle into the ships where they would remain for the coming exodus. Constantinople would untangle her thread from fate, and its soul would be released.

Ioannes would weep at the sight of the city, yet Konstantinos beside him did not know if such tearful emotions would be that of joy or misery. Once the sun had risen up to the sky, the order would finally be given for the fleet to set sail. Only the stubborn, sick, and cowardly remained in the doomed city. Leaving in the early morning, the Grand Fleet would set sail from Constantinople, watching the city disappear beyond the horizon for one final time. The Imperial family would settle upon their flagship, the Agia Theotoke, where the Imperial brothers would lead.

On January 6th 1445, Ioannes watched the Queen of Cities vanish for the final time from the ship.

In the early days of the journey, Skanderbeg would finally make his move and launch devastating raids into Ottoman territory. As the fleet would depart beyond the Aegean Sea, the Great Fleet would make multiple small stops to pick up and secure supplies before continuing their journey. The moment that the shores of the Peloponnesus would disappear under the horizon, Ioannes VIII had planned to make a speech to his men upon the Agia Theotoke.

Fate however would have other plans, as the infamous flag of the Hospitaller Order would swifly sail across the seas and cross the distance between them and the vast but much slower fleet. The Fleet would immediately brace themselves for conflict with the Knights of Rhodes, due to their reputation as pirates and how their Latin pledge to protect Christians only applied to Catholics.

Yet, as their ships reached the fleet, their goals would become clearer. Although not knowledgeable about Roman intentions, they would instead offer their services, offering both an escort across the seas to shield the fleet against a hostile Islamic sea. Many remained distrustful of the knights, but their history and prowess spoke louder than their reputation did. Ioannes would hire the Knights, bolstering the fleet and allowing the Knights to aid in the journey. However, in order to secure their loyalty, Ioannes VIII would speak a white lie about the Abandonment of Constantinople, instead, he would twist the truth and speak about the repurposing of their journey to be an expeditionary force to navigate the open world.

Following the acceptance of the Knights in joining the Grand Fleet in its journey, the Fleet would arrive at Palmero, the last stop in the Mediterranean before the gradual journey into the unknown seas beyond the Pillars of Hercules. The thousands of people upon the ships would step onto dry land and witness what true prosperity looked like after stepping foot into Palmero. As supplies would be restocked, it would be the last chance for the sailors and the many people in the fleet to step onto dry land for some time. The nobles took an interest in exploring the wealthy Italian city and seeing what it could do for the Greeks, and while there was no more room to bring further supplies, Palermo provided to act as a learning experience for the nobles rather than a mere stopping point.

During the day, Theophilos would deal with merchants and various curious locals looking in bewilderment at the Grand Fleet and the Greeks that it carried. While Konstantinos would wander around the city for the entire day. When the sun was about to set, Konstantinos did not come back alone, returning with the company of a young woman who would accompany him with a determined look in her eyes. As Theophilos looked in surprise, Konstantinos smiled and remained smitten with her, as she boarded the Agia Theotoke.

Portrait of Aurelia Orsini, future Basilinna of the Romans. Described as fair and blond of hair, she was a charismatic figure that helped lead the Romans into the New World​

Before departing, Konstantinos and Aurelia would remain with one another on the flagship. Her younger sister, Aida, would also join Theophilos on the fleet. The Orsini Sisters, as they would become known, would be both remarkably different from one another. In the years to come, they were to play a remarkable role in the years to come.

Departing from Palmero and journeying across the Mediterranean, the expedition would be hampered by bad weather in Aragonese waters. The expedition would be forced to turn southward, much to the protest of captains and sailors that sailed dangerously close to the prepherery of the Barbary coast. Ioannes VIII listened to the captains, but due to the direction the wind was blowing, not much could be done. The Emperor took note of the overcrowded and unprotected civilian ships struggling to keep up with the rest of the fleet, while the vanguard struggled to protect the inner core of the fleet.

Eventually, the inevitable happened, and the dreaded fear that crept in his heart would embark from Tunisian ports. Berber marauders and pirates rushed out to attack the fleet, ready to plunder any vessel that staggered behind under the cover of the bad weather and the overcast skies. The fleet would overextend itself, and the pirates went straight for some of the civilian ships, inspiring panic and terror over the overcrowded vessels.

Diplomacy was off the table, and Konstantinos would quickly prepare for a fight, acting quickly and ordering the battle-ready ships to intercept the pirates while allowing the civilian ships to escape further to the west. Ioannes would act quickly but carefully, using the Latin reinforcements to act against the pirates. The Knights served to act as bait for the pirates, while the expert Venetian sailors and ships flanked the enemy.

Utilizing Greek Fire, a horrifying weapon that hadn’t been seen in generations, the fleet methodically burned the pirates alive and sank their ships to the bottom of the sea. Victory would be achieved, at the price of a couple of knights and sailors, where they would need time to recover their losses. The armed fleet would reunite with the civilian ships after the battle, reuniting several hours after the battle before sundown, sending a strong message that the Roman fleet was not to be messed with.

Hearing the approach of the fleet, yet not hearing about the battle along the barbary coast, a large Granadan force drew up near the Gates of Hercules to force the Fleet to pay for safe passage beyond the narrow gap. Enticed by a promise of loot, a continent Moroccan force would also sail in support for the Granadans. Fed up with encountering another group of pirates, and also outnumbering and outnumbering the Granadan fleet, the Grand Fleet would punch straight through and wipe the pirates out before crossing beyond the point of no return.

Crossing between the narrow gap between the Pillars of Hercules and venturing into the open ocean, the Grand Fleet would encounter two isolated Portuguese chips sailing nearby the fleet with an envoy, having learned about a large naval presence crossing across the Mediterranean and the battles that had been fought. News of the flight would reach across all of Europe, although the true motivation behind the abandonment of Constantinople and Greece was unknown. The Portuguese believed that the Grand Fleet was heading southward to explore the coasts of Africa.

It would be upon the ships that an advisor would entertain the idea of tricking the Portuguese and the nations of Europe, buying precious time for the Empire to reestablish itself in Europe and to build an entirely new state. Ioannes and Konstantinos entertained the idea, while Theophilos and the Orsini siblings rejected the idea out of fear that it would alienate future allies.

Pragmatism would ultimately win out in the end, and after lengthy debating amongst themselves, Ioannes VIII and the advisors and family upon the Aida Theotoke would tell the Portuguese where they were going, treachery and deceit would only undermine the Empire in the long run. Once the envoy returned to Portugal, the Grand Fleet vanished beyond the coastline of Europe for one last time.

Ioannes and Konstantinos would stand before the bow of the ship, quietly looking before the open horizon of the sea as the smell of saltwater washed their senses. As controversial as their decision that the Romans would submit to the Council of Florence, all in a desperate plea to accept the primacy of the Papacy in Rome, it was a sacrifice of faith that both brothers had barely accepted. Only accepted out of the hope that the Latins would come to aid the Romans.

It was not accepted by most or many of the Orthodox faithful within the fleet. Accepting to bow before the Latins to escape destruction would not prove popular among the Russians or the general populace itself. Even among the faithful, it was only very reluctantly tolerated by the Romans themselves out of the hope that misery would not befall Christendom.

As soon as the brothers watched the coastline of Europe vanish behind them, there was no more reason to care about acting under the charade of lies. No more cause for pretense, as the Romans would pass beyond those who would care in both east and west. Ioannes VIII and Prince Konstantinos would publicly repudiate the Council of Florence the moment that Portugal ceased to be in view, returning to Orthodoxy and making their true intentions known, much to the delight and applause of those aboard the ship as news of this spread across the rest of the fleet.

Despite the delight amongst the Greeks, the Latins were outraged at the brash decision to abandon everything that had been orchestrated from Florence. While many of the Venetians merely refused to care or remained far too insular to focus on such religious matters, the Knights would be whipped into a frenzy. As the fleet crossed into the unknown, such matters would become a drop in the ocean for what was to come...

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(Boy, this was fun to write. It's a departure from previous styles, I hope to write more detail and narrative this time around, as it's always been one of my weaker points. Due to my personal philosophy that the story must come first, I've used Bigger Boats to allow our future Elysians to have full supply. Apologies if this feels different or unorthodox, I just wish to write something good.

I'm always happy to see a new playthrough! (Or, in this case, writethrough?)

An Elysian campaign by @Crimson Lionheart? Following. The original AAR was why I eventually downloaded Third Odyssey.

Thank you for the kind words. It's been a long time coming!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 2: The Winds of Change (1445)​

As the Grand Fleet sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, so too would the essence of the Romans sail along their fleet into the vast depths of the unknown horizon that would lay before them. Not willing to surrender themselves into certain oblivion at the bloodied hands of their conqueror, stories of the Byzantine flight from Europe would begin to reach every court across all of Europe. Stories of heroic valor and victory from the skirmishes across the Mediterranean Sea against pirates and marauders, inspire hope and striking dread among both allies and enemies where the fleet would grace its presence.

Once the very edge of Europe had been crossed, the Grand Fleet would cross to the point of no return. All of the splendor and majesty of the empire wouldn’t be respected anymore upon crossing into the cruel and merciless expanse of the Western Ocean. As the cruel reality of the situation began to wear into the flight, a sense of dread loomed over the Grand Fleet. They no longer had a home, nor did they even have a home to return back to. All that they carried and all that they were was within themselves and the fleet. The clothes on their backs, the animals and crops that were filled to capacity, and the knowledge and pride of thousands of years of legacy would be all that would exist of the Grand Fleet.

Once the most distant coastline of Europe had vanished beyond the horizon, Ioannes and Konstantinos would both make a joint and very public declaration of repudiating the Council of Florance, embracing the faith of their forefathers and rejecting the pragmatic heresy they had only so reluctantly accepted out of desperation. Once there was no more pretense to maintain the charade, the gloves would come off. And to the jubilation of the rest of the fleet, the return to Orthodoxy would be greatly celebrated by the Orthodox faithful.

The reaction among the Latins would be far more mixed, ranging from indifference from the Venetian sailors to a sense of shock among some of the few Genoese that had joined the expedition. Some Catholics, a small minority within the Grand Fleet, would even anticipate such a betrayal of the faith and didn’t act surprised. As Ioannes VIII and Prince Konstantinos would publicly repudiate the Council of Florence, the far more pious and hardline Knights Hospitaller were enraged. As the Romans no longer had to maintain pretense, neither did the small but capable collection of Latin Knights. Scandal would break out among the fleet while exchanging supplies and crew between vessels.

Captain Cedric Auvray of the Hospitallers, leading a ship and a collection of his finest knights, would slip away and reach Prince Konstantinos while he was onboard the Agia Theotoke. Once boarding, the captain would immediately draw his sword and confront the Prince in his anger, shocking Konstantinos in a crowd of sailors and civilians alike. The Captain would begin to belittle and exclaim his anger within those of earshot, exclaiming how the Prince had lied to the church and what remained of his people about his faith and his expedition. The letter that was sent back to the Portuguese, and the sudden but open decision to embrace Orthodoxy once more, would serve to be the last straw to the captain and the Knightly order.

Konstantinos had already regretted many steps that had brought him to the middle of the ocean, and the harsh decisions that came with leadership and the safety of his people. The Knights could no longer return to Europe or the Mediterranean, and within the endless expanse, they were stranded on the open sea. Despite the Captain’s open defiance against the Prince, there was a hint of fear within his eyes. Eyes that would tell the story that he had made a mistake, even if he would never recognize such a thing.

In the open seas of the Western Ocean, during the midst of the Odyssey, the Knights Hospitaller would see a political and religious reshuffling. Once news had reached Ioannes about the scandal, the act would be swift and merciless. The Knights were ordered to be catechized and to embrace Eastern Orthodoxy, a decision that would erupt into protests and infighting within the order. But the reality wouldn’t escape them. As Europe was left behind, so was their master. Wherever the Romans would end up, they shall follow their Christ.

For several weeks since departing Europe, the Grand Fleet would be blessed with optimism following its departure as the grim cynicism began to fade away over several days. With rations and resources remaining abundant due to precise management, the atmosphere would remain surprisingly lively among the ships. Finding themselves confined and stranded on the ocean and usually trapped upon their vessels, boredom was the primary concern among the fleet to fight against. To pass the time, the sailors and commoners would frequently intermingle with one another. Clergymen would cross in between ships and perform service to the faithful among the ships, while merchants discussed the open possibility that had the Grand Fleet continued on their path, they would encounter Asia. Nobles entered talks with the imperial family about the possibility of what could be found in Vinland, a land that so little had been understood for centuries, that it had entered the realm of myth and fantasy.

Despite being blessed with the weather, the fortune that had blessed the Grand Fleet would come to an end. The wind would blow viciously against the sails as dark clouds loomed over in the horizon. A dark and terrible storm that stretched as far as the eye could see would sweep across the skies, as what had once been a calm breeze from the morning would shift into a powerful storm that shook the Grand Fleet. As lightning crackled and struck the waves, the decision was made to sail through the eye of the storm.

Prince Konstantinos would immediately leap into action, aiding the sailors as the Prince would do everything in how the power to secure ropes and ensure everything remained steady as the ocean would allow it. Knowing the danger that was ahead of him, the Prince helped with rigging the ships and helping aid the sailors around him to keep everything going as torrential rain pelted his body and the entire fleet. Ioannes VIII would organize leadership and shout orders to the sailors, despite the difficulty of the strong wind preventing any resemblance of calmness from escaping from his voice.

Ioannes VIII stood upon the deck, with Konstantinos and Theophilos briefly watching from the corner of their eyes. Torrential rain soaked the Emperor to his core and blistering winds ravaged his clothing and skin. Despite attempts to get the Emperor to retreat and return to the ship for his own safety, Ioannes refused. The Emperor stood still before loudly screaming as his voice could allow him to let the Romans towards the heavens, reciting scripture from memory and asking God to grant his people safety. The Emperor stood before the bow of the ship, excluding an aura of calmness and bravery as the fleet would be guided to safety through a paradoxically calm area in the heart of the storm.

After many hours of fighting against the furious wrath of nature, the Great Fleet would survive its journey through the heart of the storm. The brave captains from Italy and Portugal would prove their worth in leading the Fleet safely out of the storm, but it wouldn’t come without a cost. Several ships had been separated from the main fleet during the storm and blown off course, leaving their fate completely unknown.

Some of the ships would tragically be struck by the full force of the storm, and despite the best efforts of sailors and the commoners who frantically tried to aid them, these chips would capsize and claim their lives. One of these ships was one of the royal ships, which hosted most of the royal advisers, councilors and other royal staff. While the royal family braved the storm through the Agia Theotoke, Prince Konstantinos mourned the loss of Georgios Sphrantzes and his entire family, who would all perish upon the loss of the royal ship alongside the vast majority of the royal staff.

It would not be the only tragedy to befall the Romans, as the storm clouds would fade away and the calmness of the seas would return. The Emperor would fall ill and be taken to his chambers in the Agia Theotoke, alarming the royal family and the remaining royal government on the ship. Braving the elements and fighting against fate, Ioannes would remain bedridden for two days, gravely ill…

After surviving the Great Storm, Ioannes condition did not improve. Every Roman upon the fleet had feared the worst, and two days after the Fleet had crossed through the storm, the worst would come to pass. Despite being surrounded by the greatest physicians, the Emperor would be stricken with severe phthisis. His condition would weaken with every passing hour, and the leading court physician would break the tragic news to Konstantinos and Theophilos. There was nothing that could be done, and in the next few hours, Ioannes was to be reunited with Christ.


In his final moments, Ioannes would summon Konstantinos, Theophilos, and the rest of the royal family around his deathbed. Many would already break into tears upon seeing the gravely weakened condition of the ill emperor, and Konstantinos’s stoic demeanor would fade away as tears rolled down his face. Ioannes looked upon the family that had accompanied him through the most desperate period of their people's history and would smile at them. He had already made peace with himself and what would await his soul in the afterlife. He didn’t share a regret upon his face, or a frown upon his weak withered face. He smiled as he looked at his brother and cousin, surrounded by the two Orsini sisters that they stood alongside. In his family, he could see the future of the Romans. And he was proud.

“Brother….” Konstantinos broke the silence as he knelt before the bed, gently gripping Ioannes’s hand into his own as he looked at him in the eyes. “I’m….I’m sorry. I wish there was som-

Ioannes cut him off with a cough before he weakly laughed. “It’s okay brother. Please don’t mourn me. I have done everything that I could for our people. Everything that I have done in my life has been to secure a better future. I have no regrets about my life. If I could do it all again, there would be nothing I would change. I have simply done what has been asked of me by the lord.”

Theophilos looked at Aida, visibly upset as tears streamed down his face. Both of them embraced one another as Aida rested her head upon his shoulder, hiding her tearful sobbing from the Emperor. Ioannes would see this and just smiled, even in his weak condition. Silently, he was blessed to spend his final moments surrounded by his family. He didn’t need to express his admiration for them, for they already knew that Ioannes had loved them very much. Ioannes looked at them for a moment before turning back over to look at Konstantinos and gripped his hand with his remaining strength.

“My brother, everything that I have done, everything that is Rome. Belongs to you. The crown now rests upon your head. Whatever happens, wherever our dream ends up, always remember that we are more than just a people. Wherever we are in this world, Rome will survive as long as there are those who believe in it. It is not a place, nor is it a people. It is a dream.” He smiled at Konstantinos. His brother remained struck by his words, feeling the life fade away from Ioannes’s hands as he turned over and looked at the ceiling.

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit…” Ioannes spoke quietly. Closing his eyes one more time, Ioannes surrendered his soul to god.

A heroic depiction of Konstantinos XI from the 19th century, the future father of the Elysians.​

The Father of the Odyssey would pass away at the age of fifty-two, his sudden death completely shocking the entire fleet. Funeral rites would be conducted and Ioannes would be placed in a casket at the bottom of the Agia Theotoke, used as a temporary measure until he could be entombed and receive a proper burial in Vinland. News about the death of the Emperor would spread like wildfire across the fleet, and the atmosphere that had both been cynical and hopeful within parts of the long journey would finally morph into a gloom. Many of the more pious believed that this was divine punishment from God for abandoning Constantinople during its darkest hour.

Konstantinos would become Emperor of the Romans immediately following the death of his brother Ioannes. After only a single day to allow himself to mourn, Konstantinos’s ascension to the throne would begin a new era of history. History was about to change, and the newly crowned Konstantinos XI would dedicate himself to finishing what his brother started. He would make sure that he would never allow the Romans to ever experience such vulnerability again.

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The Granadans certainly regret their attack. Telling the Portuguese might mean that they begin colonizing earlier, though.

Selling Morea was probably a good idea. I gave them independence, and the Ottomans ended up annexing them. Although a game as Morea after the Odyssey might be an interesting idea.

Sometimes honesty is worth more than gold. Should the Portuguese cooperate with the Romans, who knows where their relationship might end up?

Right here on board from the start for this one! Nice to see another Third Odyssey AAR out here. And honestly nice to see you committing to one path this time, the global empire path including a reconquest feels very much like the most natural route for Elysia to take. I really should give TO a go myself again, with the extra submod as well, that monastary in West Virginia seems cool

Always love a Third Odyssey AAR

Glad to have you aboard! I hope you enjoy this story

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Saint Ioannes VIII Palaiologos
Lived: December 18th 1392 - February 23rd 1445
Emperor of the Romans: 1425 - 1445
The First Master of the Odyssey

Portrait of Saint Ioannes VIII by Piero della Francesca depicts him as Emperor Constantine following his victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. ​

From all of the illustrious legacies of the Romans and the Elysians, the centerpiece between the two imperial histories would be the reign of the Emperor who had started it all. Ioannes VIII would be recognized posthumously as one of the Masters of the Odyssey, establishing a tremendous legacy that only a few Emperors before and after him would ever reach in its heights. While his life would be fraught with the struggle of reconciliation and protecting Constantinople against the Turks, it wouldn’t be until the Roman exodus from Europe that Ioannes would briefly shine with the limited time he would have. Like Moses, he would never see his people arrive in their promised land.

Ioannes VIII would be born as the eldest son of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Draga, the daughter of Serbian prince Constantine Dragas. For much of his early life, he would become associated with his father as co-emperor and would succeed him as sole emperor in 1425, although had already assumed full power and responsibilities before his twentieth birthday. Upon his full ascension to the throne, Ioannes VIII would dedicate his life to protecting Constantinople against the Ottoman Turks, famously making journeys to courts across Europe in an attempt to secure support from foreign powers.

Throughout his life, he would marry three separate times. His first and third marriages would result in both of his spouses losing their lives to plague. His second marriage to Sophia of Montferrat would ultimately break down, and by 1426, Sophia would return to Italy and never return back to Greece. None of his marriages would produce any children, leaving the succession to his brother, Konstantinos XI, whom he trusted deeply.

The Emperor would make two journeys to Italy during his lifetime. His second journey would coincide with a visit to Pope Eugene IV who consented to a union of the Greek and Roman churches, which would be ratified at the Council of Florence in 1439. Ioannes would attend with seven hundred followers, including Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople and the now infamous Gemistos Plethon, who during this period, was influential among the academics of Italy. The attempted reunion of the churches, despite the commitment of the Emperor, resulted in failure due to opposition in Constantinople. But through careful diplomacy, Ioannes VIII would succeed in holding possession of the city.

Ioannes VIII’s legacy following the last few months of his life would greatly improve the reputation of his reign, where the Emperor’s discovery within the Imperial Library and the deeply ambitious exodus from Europe would coalesce into his pivotal leadership during the Odyssey. After months of ceaseless planning, endless preparation, and the deconstruction of Constantinople that would undo the Queen of Cities, Ioannes would lead the Romans beyond the very edge of Europe and into the great beyond.

A 15th-century depiction of Ioannes VIII and the Odyssey, located in the atrium of the Hagia Theotoke. An enormous bronze tapestry that depicted the Roman Exodus and Saint Ioannes VIII ​

As the architect of the grand vision that was to become Elysium, Ioannes knew that the time of the Romans was about to end. Even at the end of his life, Ioannes stood as a defender of his faith and as a protector of his people. A lifetime of searching for an opportunity, and in the end, the answer that Ioannes would find would change the course of human history. Ioannes would die during the final weeks of the odyssey, his sudden death completely shocking the entirety of the Grand Fleet.

Following his death, Ioannes VIII would be canonized as a saint in 1450, becoming the first saint of the new world due to Ioannes’s reputation as a protector of the faith and his people. In time, Saint Ioannes VIII would be declared as a Master of the Odyssey and as the Empire's holy shield against the tide of destiny. In a bold move, the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would make his first major decision as the head of the church with the unanimous support of the entire Orthodox church. It would be both a heavily spiritual decision, and importantly, a politically motivated decision by the church due to the violent religious strife of the early period of Elysian history.

He would be buried shortly in the Pantokratoros Monastary in Kleomenon, the first major settlement established after the imperial capital of Nea Konstantinopolis. In the late 17th century, his remains would be exhumed and reburied in the imperial capital in an elaborate reburial ceremony alongside his brother Konstantinos and his cousin Theophilos. All three Masters of the Odyssey would be buried alongside each other, and their tombs would become popular tourist destinations in the modern era.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 4: The Apostate (1447-1449)​

The discovery of the New World and the landing of the Grand Fleet in the fledgling settlement of Nea Konstantinopolis would immediately send shockwaves across the surrounding region. The remnant of a vestigial empire escaping from their decaying homeland as refugees, using whatever meager resources they had taken along with them to construct a formidable settlement for themselves. The prayers for salvation would be answered in the form of Elysia, the name of the new home of the Romans. A paradise for the blessed, a land of promise and fertility, yet troubled with difficulties that made taming the wilderness difficult.

As the capital flourished in an unknown period of peace, the minds of the populace could focus on beginning their lives anew in the communities they would build. Nea Konstantinopolis remained the epicenter of the exiled Roman civilization, retaining a core of thousands of inhabitants as eager explorers and settlers gradually left the safety of the capital to begin their lives in the new frontier. Emperor Konstantinos XI and the fledgling remnant government would be tasked with constructing a new imperial government from scratch and focusing on consolidation. As peace became its own reward, survival was a priority in his mind. It would be here that this Third Rome, the last of its kind, would be built from nothing.

As buildings of wood would replace countless rows of tents, the growing capital would be limited in its resources. Stone was an exceedingly rare commodity among the reserves brought from Europe, and would remain so for years to come, due to a lack of stone quarries. Brickmaking within Nea Konstantinopolis was in its infancy, with the construction of the first collection of kilns within the capital being built to provide extra materials for construction purposes. Due to a lack of materials and production, along with a lack of volcanic ash, cement would remain virtually impossible to produce domestically until the means to produce and secure the resource would be found many years later. The first and oldest buildings within the capital would be constructed from brick until stone and concrete would gradually replace the capital’s infrastructure.

With the capital largely resembling a gigantic camp and a construction site, local religious leaders would impore the Emperor to allocate resources towards the construction of a true church dedicated to the lord. Due to the limited resources, only a basic church would be constructed using wood and stone. Konstantinos would deny their request, allocating that the expense of the church would weaken the treasury and place further stress on resources that could be better used elsewhere. The church would complain in protest, and trust in the Emperor would be briefly weakened, but nothing would come from the encounter.

With many settlers focusing on the bay area, many Greek settlers would emigrate from the capital and begin to build their new lives in small towns and villages within proximity of Nea Konstantinopolis. The area would be ripe for colonization, and the small barbaroi presence within the area would allow for easy integration of the natives into the new settlements. Strategic resources would quickly be put to good use to fuel the development of the empire that was being built, and with an influx of raw materials, the frontier colonies would see a boost in productivity.

With Nea Konstantinopolis and Kleomenon both standing on their own, a great effort was made by the Emperor and the imperial government to secure the mouth of the harbor and develop it into a major settlement. The Roman influx of Greek and Latin settlers would found the city of Prosphorion in June 1447, where its strategic location at the mouth of the bay along with it’s vast harbor would see the new settlement becoming a major center of commerce and military importance in the years to come.

Aurelia Orsini, the Empress of the Romans, would frequently display a good grasp of military strategy and knowledge throughout her life. Her expertise and knowledge on such a subject would allow her to participate in many discussions, but it would be the humanistic concern of the Empress about the soldiers within the ranks and how to best care for the men that would be held in high regard by the generals of the empire. Her presence alone would greatly impress the dynatoi, and Aurelia was a favorite within the imperial court. Konstantinos XI would remain proud of his wife and the two would frequently bond over these ideas.

With a greater influx of Roman refugees gradually leaving Nea Konstantinopolis and settling on the frontier settlements, they would come into more and more contact with the red-skinned barbaroi that were native to Elysium. Many of these tribes were far more hostile than others, and for a time, both sides would keep their distance. But as explorers ventured deeper into the mysterious lands of the continent, encounters between the Romans and the natives would become more violent. When fatalities became an uncertainty to an unfortunate reality, the Romans would react.

Orhan Celebi, the Turkish prince who had joined along with the Roman Fleet, would lead a retinue of Jannisaries in a series of expeditions to combat the natives. The skirmishes would be a resounding success, as the barbaroi would surrender to Orhan’s well-equipped and highly disciplined force of soldiers. The natives within the immediate frontier from Nea Konstantinopolis would no longer trouble the Empire, and most of the Janissaries would garrison the area to further prevent any future attacks. The Turkish methods, while still unorthodox to some and barbaric to others, would not be ignored in results.

Portrait of Orhan Celebi, the Turkish Prince (1412-1478)​

Orhan Celebi, the grandson of Suleyman Celebi, was the second cousin and a direct rival to Mehmed II, the Sultan of the Turks back in Europe. As a pretender to the Ottoman throne, his existence would be a direct threat to his cousin, who sought his execution for the crimes of his grandfather during the Ottoman Interregnum which he was never born to witness. As his very existence was a threat, Orhan would remain in Constantinople under the protection of the Greeks, living under Roman rule.

When the plan to abandon the old world was underway, Orhan and a retinue of six hundred Ottoman defectors would plead with Ioannes VIII to take them on their journey, using their experience and expertise to assist the Romans however they could. Orhan joined in the expedition with his men, and upon landing, Orhan helped organize efforts to organize the new imperial army.

As one of the few Muslims who made the journey along an overwhelmingly Christian fleet, Orhan would make a strong name for himself regardless of his origin since landing in the new world. Daring skirmishes on the frontier and the martial excellence of the Janissaries under his command would earn the respect and admiration of the imperial court. Orhan would once again make a proposal to Konstantinos XI a radical yet important proposal.

Orhan would seek to establish a new Janissary regiment within the imperial army, seeking to recruit from the young barbaroi who had been left orphaned in previous conflicts, while modernizing and implementing the Janissary doctrine which had seen the Turks rise to such success it had achieved in the Old World. The orphans would be educated to learn and speak Greek, forcefully converted to Orthodoxy, and subjected to extremely rigorous discipline akin to the Turkish model that was once deployed against the Romans.

The proposal for such an elite unit would be pragmatic, but many would be deeply worried that such a foreign practice would alienate the local populace due to the brutality of its practices. Some would point out the expense of retaining such a force, which would be better used for expanding the existing miltia and professional units within the army. Konstantinos would ultimately agree with the prevailing sentiment that history had taught the empire in past experiences at the hands of such troops and grant Orhan his support. Deeply grateful for imperial support, Orhan immediately went straight to work building the elite infantry unit.

With several years passing from the arrival in Elysia, silk production would begin to see positive results after sufficient moths were bred to reignite the industry in what would become known as ‘Skoros Silk’. A form of silk created created from moths that far exceeded the quality of any lesser clothes and textiles, yet was mediocre and inferior to the silk known of in the known world. The lack of a rival product would easily make up for the lack of quality, as it would remain the only known product of its kind on the market for generations.

Produced as only a few meters a year due to its rudimentary backward production, the silk was visibly lower quality than any silk brought along with the fleet. But it would remain a luxury item among the elite and wealthy of Roman society.

The relationship between the natives and the Romans would become difficult, as both groups would view one another with relative friendliness and outright hostility between tribes. Some tribes and groups of barbaroi would act entirely differently from the others, and as ambitions grew among the militarists, the peace that had existed for several years in Elysium would be broken. The Lenape and the Piscataway, the two largest organized tribes within the periphery of the frontier, were the most hostile groups to the empire. It would be through these two tribes that the first real conflict in the new world would begin.

Having prepared for expansionist goals for quite some time, Konstantinos and the militarists among the council would spend two years following the voyage to settle down and build their new home. By August 1447, the Empire was in a suitable position to launch offensive expansion outward and begin campaigns. Still remaining extremely limited on manpower, the Romans would hope to fight any battles decisively and prevent a long war on attrition whenever possible. Discipline, armor, and leadership would remain the three core elements as the imperial army launched their first campaign beyond the frontier. Orhan Celebi, leading the imperial army and having recently completed his first reforms, would take the initiate and launch the assault.

Orhan and the army would encounter the Piscataway at Patawomac, where the initial efforts of the battle would see a sharp advantage of Roman arms against the natives. The enemy commander would prove to use the terrain to his advantage but failed to keep the morale of his men as steel armor and weapons would punch straight through the natives. Still suffering under heavy attrition, Orhan would manage to secure victory against the barbaroi as their ranks fled from the region into the wilderness to recover.

A rapid siege of the Piscataway would rapidly follow as the remainder of their armed forces would retreat to lick their wounds, leaving their home directly exposed for Orhan to bring the might of the Roman army down upon the tribes. Hearing of the earlier battle and the defeat that followed, many of the Piscataway tribes would surrender to the Romans, while those who sought to continue the rebellion would be crushed. With victory assured, peace terms would be met. The Piscataway would become a vassal to the Romans and abandon all claims on Roman territory, while the Romans promised to respect what remained of their semi-independence for the time being.

Now existing as little more than as subjects, Roman diplomats would immediately travel to the new existing subject to build up relations and to bind them closer to the empire, with the gradual process of their annexation. Roman traders would venture into their lands to trade, missionaries would slowly begin to preach and avenues were taken to maintain a growing relationship with the tribe. With peace negotiated, positive relations wouldn’t exist for several years, but the example that had been made would define Roman expansion for years to come.

Following the rapid victory against the Piscataway, Orhan immediately marched his troops into the charted but unsettled lands to catch the Lenape off-guard. With the success of the victory taking a long time to pass beyond the frontier, the Lenepe held a smaller military than the Romans over the settlements but were notably sophisticated. As soon as the ink had dried following the treaty with the Piscataway, war against the Lenape would be declared as the Romans attacked from the west.

As soon as both forces met in combat, the Lenape would be completely massacred. Completely overpowered in combat, the Romans would outmaneuver the Lenepe and wipe the barbaroi forces out to the last man. The moment that the defeat was received among the Lenape natives, they would surrender en-masse to the Romans. The numerical decimation had destroyed any willingness to continue the fight against the Empire, and with the capabilities to maintain a prolonged conflict completely eliminated, the Lenape would have no choice but to surrender.

In another humiliating treaty, the Lenape would be forced into vassalage under the Roman banner like the defeated Piscataway. Much like the other native subjects, the Lenape would see Roman diplomats and traders venture into their settlements to trade and ease the broken relationship among the tribes. Appealing to the village elites, the Lenape would see a beneficial growth to their own relative prosperity as an appendage of the Roman system.

The original purpose of the expedition and flight from Europe was the abandonment of the old world and to settle upon the fabled lands of Vinland, a place that had eluded many minds for centuries upon its disappearance from the historical records due to its abandonment. Upon settling upon the lands that they had deemed to be Elysium, it was believed that the Romans and the natives of the vast land around them were perhaps the only source of civilization in their known world. Shortly after the successful campaign against the Piscataway and Lenape, they would be proven wrong.

A delegation from a previously unknown group of people to the north would arrive within Elysium, sailing up the bay before disembarking in Nea Konstantinopolis. The Varangians of Vinland had survived and captured the fascination of the Romans in the capital in their longboats. According to the historical documents brought along with the exodus, the Varangians of old were fearsome raiders and distinguished traders in their own right. With the coasts still mostly unprotected from outside threats, the Romans prepared a delegation of their own to talk with the Varangians.

Markland and Helluland, the cold remnant of a bygone era ​

The former remnant of the Vinlandic colonies had survived the centuries in complete isolation from the old world, but the passage of time had not been kind to the Vinlanders who had called the region home. A brutally hostile climate and having been decimated by warfare and disease. In addition to a low population, survival had remained paramount as the centuries of isolation slowly came to an end after a grueling recovery period. With first contact between Vinland and Elysium established, envoys would be met to learn about the culture and life of the other realms. Discovering surprising similarities and stark differences.

The Varangians of Vinland were an incredibly hardy and strong people, and in terrible isolation, had managed to build a strong homeland for themselves. Roman diplomats expecting barbaric dwellings filled with the horned pale men of the Viking era of terror would instead find a large wooden city that housed a unique mix of both pale and native men. Vinland had remained entrenched in the faith of their Norse ancestors, never knowing the fate of their brothers and sisters across the ocean in the old world. While not matching the youth and vibrance that Nea Konstantinopolis had, Vinland had achieved success despite suffering under horrifying circumstances.

As Roman diplomats explored in fascination about the northern colonies, they were presented with a choice. Helluland promised a stable source of naval materials for their ongoing naval expertise, while Markland presented a deal for exotic ivory, furs, and oils that weren't found anywhere else within the region, forcing the Romans into a diplomatic play that would push them towards one of the colonies but exclude the other.

After consideration, the benefits of the Markland deal would weigh more heavily over the Helluland offer, as such exotic goods would provide a stable expansion opening the markets of the new world. With a preference reached, Markland would agree to a military alliance with the Romans as Helluland diplomats would storm out from the meeting. With diplomatic ties established between the two nations, the world seemed to feel gradually bigger. And that in the busy streets of Nea Konstaninopolis, the fledgling churches of Kleomenon, and the harbor of Prosphorion, a sense of importance would swell within the hearts of the Greeks and Latins that had called Elysium home under their Roman banner.

As the vibrant communities of Roman society began to take shape, the trauma and suffering that had brought them to the New World would take a new form. A sense of abandonment would swell in the hearts of those who would abandon their homeland, and in the cruelty of the Great Storm, the divine judgment that would test the Romans would be interpreted differently. In the hushed quarters of distant ships that were away from the heart of the Grand Fleet, the storm would be perceived that God had abandoned them. These feelings of unease and spiritual abandonment would carry over into the landing and settlement of the first few Roman cities, but wouldn’t take form until much later.

Among the ship would be one of the most esteemed figures upon the Grand Fleet. Georgios Gemistos Plethon, a genius upon whom his name would be shared with both admiration and hatred. Held in high esteem by the Emperor, along with his brother and father before him, he had been responsible for circulating the teachings of Plato well beyond the confines of Hellas. For a lifetime of service to the Empire, along with friendship with the Emperor and his brilliant mind, he would be taken along with the fleet of exiles as Constantinople was abandoned.

The suffering of the Romans during the Great Storm would be interpreted by Plethon differently. Having long studied the downfall of the Romans since the adoption of Christianity, Plethon would be convinced that the suffering that had followed since the adoption of the faith was not the saving grace of the Romans. Despite being the most faithful servant of God, he didn’t help defend Jerusalem or Constantinople from the Muslims. The downward spiral from Constantine over a thousand years ago had what had been the torch of civilization as a dilapidated broken people. God seemed to listen but didn’t seem to care.

Gemistos Plethon, the Apostate. The most renowned philosopher of his era, he would be the father of the Plethonist movement. ​

With the Great Storm having already pushed even the most faithful of the Romans to their breaking points, it was a sign to the elderly Plethon that the lord had abandoned his people. The suffering that occurred during the Great Storm was not a sign from God but instead illustrated the temper of Poseidon. If the Lord truly held dominion over creation, he appeared as flawed and ill-tempered as the Hellenic gods of old. Years of doubt and suffering on his mind would turn his back on God, and his true colors would be shown. Plethon would become an apostate, singing hymns to the Hellenic gods of old and teaching the mysticism of Zoroaster. His worst crime would not be his renouncement of god, but the repudiation of the very soul and character of the Romanness of the Empire, declaring them solely to be pagan Hellenes instead of righteous Romans.

His brilliant intelligence and charisma would become such influential that the cardinal, Bessarion, would fall completely under his sway and renounce Christendom. With such influential backing, the almost hundred-year-old man’s ideas began to spread rapidly across the lower classes before spreading outward to influence almost any aspect of society that it seemed to touch. Farmers and woodsmen, merchants and artisans, noble and even priest, anything that the apostate’s ideas touched seemed to burn within their minds.

With newfound zealotry, the spiritually reborn apostate would begin to preach his new gospel and quickly found a following. Plethon would be popular within the government and was held enough in imperial esteem that arresting him would instigate a violent rebellion. Along with extreme age, it as perceived that his new beliefs were nothing more than the ramblings of a senile old man losing his grasp on reality, and was sure to die within a couple of years. He was dangerous, and yet, an old friend to the Empire who was wise and brilliant beyond his years.

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Elysia is founded! Let this Third Rome be the last Rome - and the greatest!

The foundation of a center of learning near the capital is a good start. Hopefully it lasts.

Contact with the Vikings occurs soon, right?

Correct!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 5: A Native Accord (1449-1452)​

Emboldened by the wild success that would see the Romans succeed in their new homeland, a metamorphosis of fortune would slowly ebb and transform the fabric of society. A society that had known nothing but heartache and suffering had thrown its remaining fortune into the winds of fate and would emerge on the other side of the maelstrom thriving in their new world. Surviving from the brink of death, an era of relative peace that hadn’t been felt in generations would greatly put the growing populace of the empire at a sense of ease.

As the chaotic period of the exodus from the old world settled down, a new era of building a new future would begin to reinvigorate an ancient passion within the Romans. Greeks and Latins, Barbaroi and Varangians, all the peoples that had come under the banner of the Empire would come together to construct what they had been denied in their old homeland. A blank canvas that would only paint a portrait depending on how experienced the painter was. With boundless ambition, the brush was in their hands.

Everything that had been done wouldn’t have been possible were it not for Ioannes VIII. The rebirth of the Empire and the opportunity to begin again, to understand and live in an era of peace in what had been an era of hopelessness, and everything that had been carried over from the Old World into the New One would be attributed solely to the Last Emperor of the City. Years earlier, Ioannes knew that the era of the Romans was about to come to an end, and would dedicate his entire life to fighting for his crown and his people to give them a chance. He would look beyond the ancient walls of Theodosius and would see nothing but an endless ocean of death and betrayal. He had lamented how his ancestors could permit such misery to happen.

An opportunity had to be found to save whatever he could, and in due time, would set into motion the odyssey into the unknown seas beyond the edge of the known world. Reflection and debate about the series of events would be scattered and incoherent, but ultimately, the flight would raise many questions that would be left between the seas of Europe and Elysium. Was it nothing more than a fluke that the Emperor had found the documents of the exalted Komnenos? Was it nothing more than some trickery and deception to add legitimacy to his outlandish claim and plans? Or was it really the work of divine intervention, and that through Ioannes, he had found his purpose in life to work to the salvation of God’s chosen empire from the razor edge of oblivion.

Ioannes was a man, flawed like his subjects and just as human as any other, but he was a mere man who had done the impossible. The clergy speculated that it was truly the work of divine intervention through Ioannes. How could a man, without the help of God, envision the land of Elysium out of nothing? Like Moses before him, he had died before reaching the Roman’s promised land. As the idea and concept of such divinity would arouse traction within the clergy, it would only raise more questions, yet further cement the idea between the comparisons and parallelism between Ioannes and Moses, which sparked fierce debate among the clergy.

Early Imperial depiction of Saint Ioannes VIII, the First Saint of the New World. ​

In a fierce rejection of such ideas, the small but rapidly growing sect of Plethonists responded to such claims that Ioannes’s history was not an act of the divine through the Emperor who had done so much for his nation. The Hellenic pagans would claim that Ioannes’s destiny had much more in common to a dramatic tragedy and compared the late Emperor to the likes of Odysseus and the like. In the early months of 1450, the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would make the first major decision as the leader of the church in the new world. Ioannes VIII would be canonized as a saint in 1450, becoming the first saint of the new world due to Ioannes’s reputation as a protector of the faith and his people, acting as the Empire's holy shield against the tide of destiny.

It would be both a heavily spiritual decision, and importantly, a politically motivated decision by the church due to the confronting religious tension between the Christians and the Plethonist movement that was picking up momentum within the rural regions, interpreting the canonization as a direct attack against themselves and their faith. Tensions between the clergy and the Plethonists would increase, splitting the social and religious divide that was slowly growing between the populace as their identity began to split apart. The Imperial Crown would sit directly in the middle, watching from the sidelines and unable to take direct action out of fears that involvement would encourage a further schism.

Konstantinos would swell with pride as his older brother would be canonized as a Saint, proud that the salvation that the Romans had finally achieved would be directly responsible because of him. A lifetime of trying to find a means to save his people would lead Rome beyond the waves, saving them from certain doom and from the conqueror's whips. In a ceremony within Nea Konstantinopolis, the Emperor would express his relationship with his older brother, the one who had started it all.

Despite being a devout Christian, Konstantinos could sympathize with the Plethonist movement and the frustrations that it had been born from. The abandonment within the resolute hearts of the faithful would lead their souls to be turned away, and with his personal relationship to Plethon over the course of his life, could understand the reasoning and wisdom from a philosopher that had survived and contemplated so very much. Split between his faith and his people, the Emperor would need to tread water lightly between the growing tension.

With the expansion of her influence, Roman rule would rapidly spread outward from around the Bay Area as eager explorers and settlers quickly began to build new settlements and lives. The early years of consolidation within the region would not be without difficulties, as several skirmishes would be fought with the local natives that still called the region home. With the natives unable to defeat the entrenched Roman settlers, the Romans lacked the ability to make further gains due to limited knowledge of the land and its terrain.

With the initial push coming to an end, the Empire would now be in a position to conduct diplomacy with the natives rather than resorting to conflict. One of the tribes, the Powhatan, would be fascinated by the arrival of the Europeans and would develop a lust for Roman silver and spears. The Romans, with a need to expand their territory beyond the harbor and to encompass themselves around the bay area, would quickly come into contact with the tribe.

Diplomats would come into contact with the mamanatowick (paramount chief) of the Powhatan, seeking to come to an accord with the tribe to prevent any bloodshed. The Roman diplomats would carry considerable diplomatic weight when negotiations would begin, bringing with them the silver that the Powhatan had expressed their passion for.

The Romans would offer a deal to the Powhattan. The Romans would gain control of the Powhattan lands and the tribes would be given passage to migrate to the south, in exchange, they would be granted the wealth they desired and weapons of war. As diplomats engaged with the tribe, Konstantinos would carefully survey any and all news regarding the negotiations, hoping that it would be an effective way to conserve the critically low manpower the armies had.

After days of negotiations, the diplomats would return back to Nea Konstantinopolis with their heads held high in pride. Emperor Konstantinos would receive word that the Powhatan would accept the deal to leave the land of their ancestors in return for favorable Roman conditions. Powhatan villages, now equipped with crossbows and light iron armor, would pack up and migrate south as they spoke. In their place, Roman settlers moved in and began to settle in the region.

Konstantinos XI would be delighted about the news, preventing a potential conflict from ever taking place and causing unnecessary bloodshed. Within the coming weeks, multiple small towns would be settled across the former lands of the Powhattan. The largest of these settlements would be a small city named Pyrgos, intended to be the administrative capital of the region. With efforts underway to build the settlement, Roman control over the entire Bay Area would become virtually uncontested.

The lands around Nea Konstantinopolis would be vast, wealthy, and hardly used by the native inhabitants who had called the region home for countless generations. With expansionist efforts completely in full swing, and with natives either integrating under Roman rule or being repealed from the region outright, Greek settlers would quickly migrate into the territories and begin to establish colonia.

The Eastern Roman Empire, it's vassals, and its known world, c.1449​

Within a span of five years, the exiled remnants of the old empire would comfortably settle within their new home in Elysium. With a position and a home that was solidified with every passing day, the Romans would comfortably settle within the growing settlements and work in tandem with both local and native elements within its society. With such prosperity unlike anything the Empire had ever known in Europe within such a short period of time, Konstantinos XI and the imperial council would primarily be focused on building the realm's infrastructure above expansionist measures. Peace would accompany the most important feeling that had been lost for generations, the expression of true hope for oneself and for the future, would become the most important element within Roman society for years to come.

With the Plethonist movement swaying the discontent masses and the disillusioned, the heretical movement to return to the faith of the old gods would begin to pick up momentum as new converts started to rapidly adopt the new faith. With Plethon and the most fanatical of his followers leaving Nea Konstantinopolis to build a new society within the frontier lands, where his teachings would continue unappeased by the strangulation of Christian hands, the Orthodox faithful would be disgusted by the presence of the small but rapidly growing movement and seeing toleration of the heathens within the nation.

Devout dynatoi and courtiers would express their anger, and such hostility to the Plethonist movement would see the most influential of Roman society demand that the crown make a public statement on the matter. After inaction for such a long time, Konstantinos XI would officially make his opinion known about the movement. After remaining sympathetic to some of its core tenets, the Emperor would publicly condemn the Plethonist movement, quietly but unofficially supporting the orthodox church. With repeated Plethonist attempts to attack the legacy and recent canonization of Saint Ioannes, along with growing hostility to Christendom outright, it wouldn’t take much to sway Konstantinos’s mind on the matter.

Since their arrival in the Elysian Fields, the Romans suffered under many hardships that they would carry over from the Old World. The drive towards the pursuit of knowledge that had been brought over across the ocean would lead the empire to desperately survey every piece of knowledge brought over in search of solutions and answers to questions that hadn’t been answered yet. The desire to delve into the answers of the past and a growing tendency that has been increased with the emergence of intellectuals, along with the rise of Gemistos Plethon who had worked tirelessly to promote the works of Plato, Plotinus, Proclus and other Nea-Platonist writers of antiquity would spark a revival of the ideals and culture of the same era.

Along with the restoration of ancient Latin and Greek knowledge, and a feverish revival to surpass the achievements and ideas of antiquity, would spark the beginning of an entirely new period of history. New ideas for rulers, as well as those who are ruled, are quickly spreading through the land. Roman knowledge and the inspiration it would carry over from its forefathers in millennia past would be focused upon a new form of humanism, focused on one's transcendence to the afterlife with a perfect mind and body. The pursuit of knowledge and the training towards perfection of body and soul would lead to the Roman ideal of a ‘Universal Man’ that combined a great intellect, physical excellence, and the ability to function with honor in any situation.

With the flourishing of the new ‘Renaissance’ and the ideals that it carried over from the Old World, a unique form would exist within the New World. Everything from politics and philosophy to art and music, and architecture would be fundamentally changed forever in a feverish revival of cultural rebirth in a brand new world to fit the classical ideals of the past. Cultural arts would thrive while unique architectural wonders were being built. Beginning under the reign of Konstantinos XI, the Palaiologian Renaissance would contribute to the stunning growth within society, before evolving into a wider Elysian Renaissance.

Five years after the landing of the New World, the Romans would organize the territories under their dominion with far greater efficiency. Nea Konstantinopolis would rapidly advance quickly, as the last remaining remnants of tents would fade away as wooden houses and palisades would replace them. Now that survival was no longer a priority, more effort was focused on building and constructing what was new. The Council, in tandem with the Crown, would slowly be integrated into the emergence of the imperial court.

Food supplies, local disputes, and effective local governance would be maintained by the Council, while the Crown took its responsibility for matters beyond and above the Council’s responsibility such as economic factors and a tight control over the small but highly effective armed forces.

In the five years since their arrival, the Romans would bounce in their achievements and wonders. Five years of harsh winters, discovery, challenges, and ceaseless work would come to bear fruit as a true civilization began to emerge in the wilderness from the hostile world around them. Long having been accustomed to the wonders of their ancestors, both the Greeks and the Latins would live in the ruins of the legacy of the ancient empire. The arrival of the Romans in this new world would immediately feel alien and out of place after the landing. Arriving on an empty continent with nothing but beaches and fields, the Romans lost the enthusiasm to delve deeper beyond its exterior. Long having been accustomed to the restoration of old concrete roads, ruined aqueducts, and the dilapidated temples and columns of an ancient society that had ceased long before they had ever been born.

Thousands of years of secrets from the old world didn’t exist within Elysium. There were tribes of barbaroi, who understood the continent better than the Romans did, but had nothing similar or even remotely in common with what was found in the old world. No secrets under the ground, no landmarks of ancient monuments dotted the landscape. To the Romans, both the Greek and Latins that served under the proud imperial banner, they were no longer living underneath the dim shadow of the ancients.

And from nothing, the foundation of a new society would be built. The land around them would begin to change and shift as new buildings, churches, and docks would appear to replace the emptiness that surrounded them. The failures of the first houses would be small and weak, but with inexperience, it would be a learning opportunity to improve and do better. It would be here in the Elysium Fields that the Romans would learn the joy of creating rather than repairing, and to see the imagination setting the limits of what could be created. Even in the capital, the arts flourished under primitive yet exquisite wooden figurines and clay pots.

Early 16th-century portrait of Theophilos II Palaiologos (1421-1492), the Third Master of the Odyssey, posthumously remembered as 'The Builder' ​

Deep down, the desire to build an entirely new world would inspire the Romans to grow in their ambition, yet feel hollow. Everything that had been built thus far was cheap and fragile, existing solely as a temporary solution. It would be here that the Romans would look back to their history, whereas the Greeks would look beyond the bay to their forgotten home in Constantinople. A capital that was designed to awe, to covet, to venerate, and last throughout the ages. It would serve as the namesake for the capital they had lived in, and as a blueprint for their origins and for what was yet to come.

Prince Theophilos, after years of detailed designs and intricate planning, would finally see his ideas take form and shape. Taking personal initiative and planning to develop the young capital for the Romans, a delicate and well-thought-out layout for the new city would be proposed that guaranteed a house for every Roman in Elysium. Stone would replace wood and the recently revived knowledge to create concrete, discovered within the depths of knowledge taken from the old world, would follow the Romans across the world they would aspire to build in Elysium.

Importantly, to shield the young capital from harm and to protect its inhabitants, a wall was to be constructed. Just like Theodosius’s wall, it was the sole reason that the Romans had survived for long enough to discover Elysium. Like Constantinople before it, it would serve as a blueprint for Prince Theophilos to take inspiration from, and the time would come to create its own.

Setting a perimeter around the width of the capital, the Romans would begin the construction of what would become known as the Theophilian Walls, named after the Prince who had already laid the foundation for the modern plans for the capital of the Third Rome. With the recent discovery of stone in the mountains along the west, the building blocks for the defensive structure would be laid as workers chiseled away slowly at the earth. Bringing the Roman standards of the old world to the defense of the capital in Elysium, the walls would primarily be constructed as the first stone structure of the city, slowly replacing the wooden palisades that protected the city.

Using records and ancient texts, along with the living memory and impression of the ancient Theodosian Wall of the Old City as an example, the new wall would be destined to be the most formidable fortification on the entire continent. Serving as a blueprint in its construction, the early wall would follow much of its ancient predecessor's design with its multiple layered defenses. In its crude and early form, construction was expected to take years but would prove to be an invaluable defensive shield to protect the capital from any and all threats.

With the Romans settling and integrating themselves into their new home, the Empire had primarily relied upon the Arte dei Delfini and the meager merchant presence carried over from the Old World to ensure that trade and economic matters would continue to operate despite a nonexistent structure. Long having been trading with just the natives, the Empire had lacked any presence beyond its immediate surroundings and would integrate itself with the Latins.

Konstantinos XI would begin to solve this problem by encouraging entrepreneurs to establish themselves as merchants, establishing the foundation for a local trade network, and reducing the overreliance of the Latins. As the beginning of a new merchant class would emerge within the Empire, its efforts would begin to already result in success as Greek merchants and entrepreneurs began to spring across the empire and resume trade.

Southwest from the capital, new colonia would blossom with settlers as an influx of Greek farmers would begin to settle within the land due to productive soil and agricultural potential among early settlers. With such an influx of settlers leaving Nea Konstantinopolis and settling within the region, the agricultural hub of Neriton was founded as the territorial capital for the region. In the years to come, Neriton would serve as an early breadbasket for the Empire and provide the basis for the first vineyards across the empire.

Emerging as a growing power within the region for some time, the Barbaroi have been hesitant and reluctant to communicate and engage with the Romans out of fear. The cultural shock of such a foreign civilization would serve as an intimidating factor that would leave awe and fear within the tribes, but now that the sense of wonder had diminished over the years, only hesitation would replace these feelings.

Roman expansion, unchecked and advancing rapidly outward, had already overrun several native lands and would bring them within direct proximity to imperial borders. Several chiefs, warriors, and other officials from the subsumed natives would form their own small councils and would seek an audience with the Emperor and the government. Technically apart of the empire as subjects, they also retained a level of quasi-independence from imperial affairs, resulting in legal disputes about land ownership and settler rights.

Konstantinos XI would tackle the issue at hand directly, granting an audience with the barbaroi and listening to their plight. The barbaroi would accept Roman rule and laws, but demanded the right to govern themselves in turn, seeking autonomy among their communities and dealing with others of their kind in the process. In return, the barbaroi would accept the imperial rule and the consequences that came with it.

Konstantinos XI would agree to leave their ancestral lands untouched, leaving their territories directly to them and their people, introducing measures to prevent colonies from being organized in native lands without permission. With militarists and economists wanting to seize the most economically beneficial lands from the natives, the Emperor would deepen his ties to the natives and seek to prevent a waste of resources. All the Emperor would ask in return was their loyalty and cooperation, which the barbaroi would agree upon Emperor’s further cooperation with the natives would establish an entirely new class of Romans within the government.

The Barbaroi Councils would become the fourth pillar of the Imperial government and an important diplomatic and administrative council that would oversee native interests within the empire. Emperor Konstantinos XI would sign the Treaty of Kleomenon with the most senior of Barbaroi, through which the imperial government would recognize native ownership of territories and be granted autonomy, along with being exempt from having land seized by the crown. With the barbaroi appeased, the integrated natives would contribute to the colonies and help develop the land. The more xenophobic elements of Roman society would protest the signing of the treaty, but without the barbaroi within the empire, it would serve as a check to restrain Roman ambition.

Clergymen and missionaries that would settle across the Empire would frequently use their teachings to spread the word of Christ, frequently directing their efforts towards the frontier and outward to efforts to convert the native tribes. With religious tensions climbing within the Empire, scandal would erupt across the society as a clergyman would be found murdered on the edge of imperial territory. Plethonist followers would be quick to deflect the blame on the barbaroi, but evidence and an investigation into the murder would instead prove that the locals had conspired against the devout Christians in the area and had murdered the priest themselves, using the natives as a scapegoat to deflect the blame for their actions.

Such a scandal would have the crown involve itself in the matter, where Konstantinos XI would blame the locals and have them tried to the full extent of the law for being heretics, inciting anger among the Plethonist community. The Patriarch and the faithful within society would be pleased with the Emperor's decision, only solidifying further ties between the church and the populace in the form of spiritual brotherhood. Plethonists, already acting aggressively against the matter, focused more inward and became more reclusive. The more radical of the pagans would become increasingly agitated and violent in addition to the growing persecution.

With the core of the new lands thriving under a temporary colonial and economic boom, an effort was made to modernize and structure the old remnant of the imperial army to adjust to the new structure of the New World. With a growing force of militia serving as the first military within the new world, led by former mercenary captains and the few capable commanders that had accompanied along the journey, the structure of the new military would be reformed. With Prince Orhan taking a strong position to empower his own elite corps, Konstantinos XI would remain a very capable and strategic military mind in his own right. Three direct proposals would be made for military reform, where generals would argue day and night about the weight of their decision, for it would lay the foundation for the future of Roman combat.

The voice of reason that would make the decision would not come from any of the commanders, nor would come from either Orhan and the Emperor. The final word would come from Empress Aurelia, who would be respected for her military and logistical genius in such matters. In the end, it would be the Empress of the Romans who would push for her husband's idea to expand the militia into the backbone of a new army. Such expansion of the local city militias would instill a sense of pride within the people as they defended their homes from foreign threats while providing them with direct and crucial military experience that can applied anywhere, forming the backbone of a proper military structure that would allow the Empire to feel soldiers where necessary.

Konstantinos would remain proud of his wife for such a brilliant concept, while also deeply impressing Prince Orhan and the few capable commanders that would surround them. With a reorganization of the armed forces, including a structure that was to be constructed from the ground up, the reformation of the army was expected to take some time.

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Awesome Update
Always wondering what happens if you take the Plethonist side in the crisis

Lots of violent shenanigans and the conversion to Hellenism, which radically alters the destiny of the future Elysium in the long run.

You have assigned Konstantinos's regnal numeral as XII throughout, when he was only the eleventh ruler of that name.

Konstantinos Laskaris, the brother of Theodore I is sometimes numbered Konstantinos XI, as he might have been acclaimed emperor during the Fourth Crusade. In any case, the Romans didn't use regnal numerals, so they are all unofficial.

My mistake, it was something I have grown accustomed to when writing. It will be fixed now, thanks for the correction

Congrats on expanding Elysian dominion!

Also, I find the idea of Janissaries in Elysia interesting. How useful will they be?

Plethon converted a cardinal? Wow. That's a shock. Who will the court side with?

The Janissaries will certainly punch far above their weight, although it wouldn't come without controversy.

As for the Plethonists? Who knows where the court will side with in the end, there's still many years to go before things begin to take a turn for the worst.

Great stuff! Is this a remake of a previous story?

Yes and No. It's a loose remake of my first AAR from several years ago, and while it will share some similarities, they will be two different stories by the end.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Interlude I: An Imperial Wedding (1452)​

It was a public ceremony, perhaps the most significant event ever since the landing in Elysium. Theophilios was busy outside of the stone church, anxiously pacing in circles at the ceremony that was about to take place. The crunching of snow could be heard underneath his feet, making the slippery path that he walked upon a danger if he wasn’t paying careful attention. Inside of the church, the guests of honor would be assigned and positioned in their seating arrangements. Everyone had assembled inside the room, religious iconography filling the modest temple where he was set to be married. Everyone was here at his wedding, regardless of their status, talking about the next husband-to-be and his future wife. The news would spread outward and reach some of the barbaroi tribes within the Empire’s proximity, sending gifts and delegations in the name of the tribes who made it in attendance.

Theophilos was a nervous wreck. He had followed his cousins across the sea in what had once been described as nothing more than a gamble against fate. He had held his head high with a sense of pride at what he had already done since their arrival in this new world, but yet he didn’t want to take away the energy of what was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. He felt like he was taking away the moment. Even with his nervous footsteps outside of the church, Theophilos couldn’t help that he was going to make a mistake. A full day of getting organized into his finest clothes, wondering about what the future could even bring. Perhaps he wondered that if he cou-.

A hand on his shoulder would interrupt his contemplation.

“Stressing will only make it worse, cousin” Konstantinos chuckled, breaking the silence.

Theophilos turned for a moment and looked at the Emperor of the Romans, wearing his ceremonial robes as he stood alongside him in the cold. He had always wondered how his older relative could remain warm wearing such silk on the top of the furs that kept his body warm. “I can’t help it.” he retorted.

“Everything will be okay. You are still young and you have your entire lives ahead of you” Konstantinos reassured him.

“But what if I make a mistake during the ceremony? I know I must be brave, but even within the presence of our loved ones and all of our guests, I still feel very much like a stranger to them.” Theophilos sighed.

Konstantinos shook his head. “It won't come to that. Have faith, and everything will work out. It’s something that the good lord has reminded me from time to time whenever we make mistakes. But I will admit that I have been in your shoes before, even with my previous marriages.”

Theophilos had been told about that in the past, about the tragedy befalling his older cousin in the past. He had married twice before, and within a year apart, both of his wives would die. His first love had died while giving birth to a stillborn daughter. His second wife became gravely ill after suffering a miscarriage and died before the end of the month. After such tragedy, he had figured that Konstantinos would remain without another bride for the remainder of his days. Yet not only did Konstantinos end up remarrying only a couple years after the death of his second wife, but Konstantinos would marry who was to become his sister-in-law, Aurelia.

He was happier, and perhaps, he really did need to have faith. The faith to take a leap of faith and land on the other side. It had worked for Ioannes, upon whom the hope of an entire people would carry across the seas and bravely be carried across their new homeland. And it had worked for Konstantinos as well. He had seemed happier, even if his life had been nothing but difficult.

“I don’t understand how you can do it.” Theophilos briefly spoke. His fidgeting had stopped by now and he focused his attention fully upon the Emperor.

The Emperor just chuckled and placed his hand on his shoulder, grinning slightly. “You just need to have faith.”

With a confident grin, Konstantinos XI would turn himself back into the church, leaving the inquisitive mind of a nervous Theophilos to ruminate all over the wisdom that he had been granted. He knew that Konstantinos spoke about having faith, but Theophilos would interpret such mannerisms differently. The Emperor spoke about it like it was simply telling his nephew that he needed to believe in himself, or maybe he didn’t need to believe in something else. Could it be the lord’s guidance over such a precious day? He had no such idea.

Theophilos would enter the church as the murmur of conversation would begin to echo and bounce off the walls of the church, speaking in hushed tones about the Prince for the ceremony that was set to occur. The Patriarch himself would be responsible for the conduction of the wedding, granting his blessing to the holy union. All eyes would turn to the hushed silence of the bride entering the room, as Aida Orsini entered the room for the last time under her maiden name, accompanied by her older sister Aurelia.

The Patriarch stood between the couple, appearing far younger than the old priests of the forgotten world back across the sea. Theophilos and Aida would stare longingly at one another, and as time passed, the couple felt that their entire world was looking at them in happiness. Not a word would be said, and aside from the hymns being sung, the couple couldn’t break their gaze from each other.

In the couple’s mind, there wasn’t a world without each other. Their eyes would find each other as they were surrounded by an entire ocean of their own, no longer suffering under the weight of the storm they had survived. A single smile would say all the words they ever needed to express, their eyes shining like the jewels upon their ornate clothing. They had found each other from two different words on a summer evening in Sicily, they had crossed the endless seas for days and nights, battled a raging storm with each other, and fought against the cruelty and wilderness that had been thrown at their way.

In the late evenings, Aida would challenge her husband to be as he tirelessly worked on his schematics and plans. Dreams gave form onto the parchment and the pen, holding hands interlocked as their inquisitive bookish minds bounced ideas off from one another. Born as a commoner, she was to become a princess in her own right, challenging her brilliant husband with the perspective and genius of her own ideas.

It would only take a moment's last word for them to kiss, as the blossoming of their love would break all protocol as the royal couple embraced one another at the very last word of the Patriarch officiating their marriage. Some of the crowd looked stunned, yet many would cheer for the new couple. Bells ring, and a moment in the empire’s history would be forever made in the church during the cold winter's day. All that Theophilos and Aida felt was the warmth from each other and without a care in the world.

Together, under the candlelight, the late ceaseless evenings of dreaming about a better world would come together. Theophilos and Aida would together shape this world, but for today, their happiness was enough.

-----------------------------------------------

Ah, that's the one! Your writing style seemed familiar yet different.

Building a big wall, but "safety has a cost"? Is the cost being racist against Mexicans?

Nea Konstantinopolis won't be built in a day. But under good guidance and the right leadership, maybe we might just see the foundations for something truly inspiring later down the line

In this case, it is a very literal cost, lol!

Congratulations on starting a new AAR, Mr. Lionheart! It's amazing to see the Extra events around and how they influence the narrative... but also how I really should go back and correct some, uh, "typos", haha. Thank you for your work, and I'll be reading every episode you post.

Hopefully everything goes fine with the Romans! May Saint Ioannes save you from the border gore.

Thank you so much for your support! I promise that I won't disappoint!

May Saint Ioannes save us!

Well, the trade with the locals and the establishment of the Barbaroi Councils is good. The new settlers can't fight a continent alone, even with their technological advantage.

It looks like the Plethonists are losing.

Those walls should prove useful if a European colonizer tries to conquer Elysia and somehow reaches the capital.

Even with their advantages, the Romans are still strangers in a foreign home. They have a very long road ahead of them

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 6: Breaking Point (1452-1456)​

The atmosphere of Roman society would be jubilant with the air of success brushing along the thriving empire, celebrating the wedding of Prince Theophilos and Princess Aida along with a record-breaking year in both the agricultural and financial sectors of the Empire. The granaries of the Empire would be filled to the brim with an abundance of supplies, while trade with the barbaroi tribes and the distant remote Vinlanders would ignite the fires of an industry that had remained dormant for years. Experiencing the joy of building and creating instead of living upon the legacy of their forefathers, the emergence of the new homeland was about to flourish.

The Empire no longer had to look upon itself, as in several years, the Old World became more of a distant memory. The period of austerity and survival was gradually coming to an end, and now being able to stand on its own, the sky was the limit.

Having remained active ever since the Landing in Elysium, silk production would remain a dormant but active business on the continent. Through having remained active for quite some time, the establishment of a dedicated merchant class of entrepreneurs and traders would allow the industry to thrive. Skoros Silk, despite its inferior quality in comparison to its counterpart across the ocean, still remained a luxury item that was sought after by the wealthy elites of the Empire. Once reserved exclusively for the notables within Nea Konstantinopolis, upon which the silk was worth a small fortune in its own right, modernizing production methods and a strengthening trade network would see merchants venture far and wide carrying it as part of their regular wares.
Native trading partners and Vinlandic merchants from the far north had begun to take notice, and demand is forming among them and their kin. With a complete monopoly on production, the Imperial economy is set to see a boon in growth. As long as the dominance over the market held, so too would the economic growth.

Before the end of 1452, the bay area that would make up the center of the Elysium Fields would be under complete imperial control. With the Bay secured and prospering under thriving conditions, the region and its strategic resources would be used to further grow the empire. The city of Troizen would be founded, sitting along the Bay of Methenai, where it would become a major source of dyes and textiles for the empire. Its strategic position along the bay would also secure its position as a strong naval outpost for the empire, acting as the first line of defense against any Viking incursions to the south.

After several long weeks of mundane reports and boredom plaguing the Emperor, who had spent most of the period listening to the bickering of noble houses petitioning that their voices be heard, developing matters from beyond the wild lands of the frontier would quickly capture the interest of Konstantinos XI. In distant lands far away from the imperial capital, the Emperor would be informed by merchants of a serious political development to the far north. A man who had managed to unite the Haudenosaunee tribes into a singular collective entity.

Accounts would speak of this man, known among the tribes and the Roman merchants as the Great Peacemaker, who spoke of him as a prophet who had counseled peace among the warring tribes. Konstantinos XI would be forced to plan his next moves carefully. A unified Barbaroi nation could prove to be a valuable ally in a hostile world, while a swift response would be enough to secure Roman dominance through bloodshed and would become a thron on the side of the Empire. Konstantinos XI would immediately send an ambassador to measure the peacemaker’s true intentions.

A response would return to the capital several days later, while conversation would begin to spark among the populace about the distant yet powerful Haudenosaunee. Whispers among traders that the barbaroi nation possessed a united force that was powerful enough to challenge the Romans, and were united through a distinct cause as the tribes coalesced into a singular nation. Paranoid minds believed that the barbaroi hordes were enough to push the Romans back into the seas, while the optimistic believed that this was a valuable discovery to learn more about the lands of Elysium. Between the two opinions, a certain distinct medium was spoken in hushed tones. There was but one leader for the Five Nations, a Prophet among kings who declared himself humbly as the ‘Great Peacemaker’.

His response came in the form of an ambassador who presented himself before the Roman court, a colorful chimera of customs of all of the cultures from lands both distant and at home. A long Norseman beard, a robe of Roman silk, a curved oriental scabbard, and a deep complexion among his painted face would stare down the Emperor of the Romans and the imperial court. He had not come simply to bring peace or war to the Romans, but to pronounce the supremacy of the Emperor among the trees.

His unique customs would surprise the court into hushed whispers, as the ambassador's presence was enough to stand out among the court. Konstantinos XI would witness the ambassador present the court with a noble chicken of black and mottled feathers, and for a moment, both men would lock eyes with one another in silence. The Emperor took the serene calmness of the ambassador and the usage of the chicken as a sign of peace, amusing him in its simple message, before Konstantinos XI would grant the Haudenosaunee the full support of the Romans for the prized gift.

The Roman and Haudenosaunee alliance, c.1453​

The Ambassador smiled and thanked the Emperor before returning to his homeland, pleased to report his discovery to the Great Peacemaker. In the coming weeks, the Haudenosaunee and the Romans would come together to engage with diplomacy, entering into a military alliance of self-defense between their two nations. Diplomats, both Greek and Native, would begin venturing into the frontier lands between the two nations and establish relations. The Haudenosaunee and Roman relationship would begin upon a solid footing, and as peace between the alliance grew, so did the nature of its friendship.

Upon the Imperial Flagship, the secrets that would be taken the recreate the formula for the legendary ‘Greek Fire’ during the flight from Europe had proven to be a fruitful one. While it had seen little use in naval combat so far, it would remain an attractive counter defensive measure to prevent any future Viking raids upon the Roman coastline. It had also proven to be extremely useful in warding off native raids on any cities and forts within the Empire, though used as a terror weapon to completely decimate native morale instead of merely inflicting any significant casualties.

With the applications and devastating concepts that had been formulated among the Romans, alchemists and engineers had together made plans to improve the range and reliability of both ship-mounted and handheld variants using more modern techniques and materials. Land applications to the terrifying formula would be looked into, as concepts were drawn into sketches and plans. But the supply of naphtha, a viscous black liquid that would prove critical to the production of Greek Fire, would run low, forcing the empire to ration supply and to reserve it for imperial fireships and fort defense.

With the supply of naphtha decreasing daily, the military officials would pressure the imperial government to locate a new source of naphtha before reserves inevitably ran out. In addition to its military applications, naphtha has been known amongst alchemical circles for its uses since ancient times. With a nervous military and the imperial establishment looking to conduct search parties, the natives would speak of great pits of black liquid rising from the ground near the Borealian Lakes. Others would tell tales of a small island far to the south where entire lakes of naphtha would flow like water, although this would be dismissed as pure fantasy by sailors.

With little alternative but with deep curiosity, search parties would venture into the known to locate a new source of Naphtha for the empire. With the promise of good pay, an additional incentive would be granted to soldiers serving within expeditionary parties, ranging from a parcel of land or its equivalent in money much like the ancient imperial legionaries of old. With enthusiasm, the search parties would venture into the unknown.

With a sizable among of land within the bay surrounding the capital under imperial control and settlement, Konstantinos XI would invest heavily into its development to build the growing economy of the region. Prince Theophilos and many like-minded scholars would draw up plans to expand infrastructure for the growing population, and with a thriving boom period to strengthen the imperial economy, a strong solid heartland would be secured among the Roman exiles in the new world. The Elysian Bay and Elysian Coast, as it would come to be known, would see coastal communities bloom along its waters.

Prosphorion, as the seat of the imperial navy and controlling the mouth of the bay, would thrive. With its strategic position serving to control all trade heading by sea to the imperial capital, its importance, and local economy would skyrocket.

With the Elysian homelands thriving, Roman influence and control rapidly spread outwards as colonies began to be established beyond the bay for the very first time. With the heartland’s rapid growth, settlers had already spread their wings and ventured away from the cradle of the bay to establish countless small villages that dot the land. Under a careful but controlled expansion, the beginning of a true nation would be established that would one day match the one that was left behind. Emperor Konstantinos, long having looked inward to protect his subjects and to safeguard the future, was largely completed. It would come to him and his senate for the future that awaited them as the Roman state turned inward.

While the settlements were blossoming, its lands lacked fresh water. Every settlement that had been built would grow around a natural spring. For a land that had been so verdant in life, the settlements were unusually bereft of water. A solution would be proposed as Roman settlements began to hug around the highlands and mountains of the Apalesians, and once more, ancient wisdom would influence the present destiny of the Empire.

A series of grand aqueducts would be constructed, equalling those of Old Rome, connecting imperial lands to the far mountains that stood only in the distant horizon. Once more a construct of the brilliant Prince Theophilos, the designs would be perfected by a small council consisting of the Prince and some of the finest intellectuals and engineers within the Empire. Included upon the council was Theophilos’s wife, the recently wed Princess Aida, upon whom her talent for mathematics and sharp intellect would oversee and even improve on such ambitious plans.

In the coming years, the foundation would be laid for the aquatic highways to bring fresh clean water to the Empire. For use in farming, public baths, sewage systems, and more. Another obstacle on the road to transforming the Third Rome to be worthy of its name,

With Roman expansion being directed towards the mountains and establishing itself beyond the Elysian Bay, current thoughts would extend towards future expansion efforts beyond the Elysian Coast and instead be directed towards looking into carving pathways through the imposing Apleisian Mountains. While it was incredibly ambitious, the hope would remain that a highway network through the mountains would ease the movement of imperial armies and merchants beyond the mountains who would someday venture deep into the interior of the continent.

Many engineers would begin to construct plans, but with a lack of resources and a weak priority to venture beyond the mountains, the idea was put into the back of their minds. It would take generations before the plan would be approached seriously again, but the logical structure of the network remained solid.

After a lifetime of service to the throne, Gemistos Plethon would die peacefully at the age of ninety-seven. The Father of the Plethonist movement that would share his name would be many things. A philosopher, clergyman, a mathematician, and a navigator who had dedicated everything to the service of Rome. Even after renouncing Christ, the apostate had remained on good terms with the imperial family and the throne. His successor and former student, Bessarion, would inherit the leadership of the Plethist movement and tirelessly worked to solidify its doctrine. Carrying the humanistic elements from his teacher, a bitter Bessarion and a newfound zealotry among its faithful would continue to sway more and more followers. Christian persecution, especially on the frontier where the Plethonists held sway, would further radicalize the growing cult.

Konstantinos XI would be confronted with a difficult choice. Even with the Emperor condemning the Plethonist movement and its heretical turn towards the paganism of the old gods, Plethon as a figure was a far less controversial figure than the movement that would bear his name. In light of the circumstances, a state funeral would be organized, which was immediately controversial between the Christians and Plethonists alike. The Church pressured the throne to further condemn the man and urge the Christian faithful to steel their faith against the teachings of the apostate, while a smaller delegation of Plethonists wished to perform their own delegation and honor their teacher as distinguished thinkers and statesman.

With the funeral to be held, the crown would organize the state funeral itself, using the event to shape its own narrative and attempt to heal the division that threatened to tear the entire empire asunder. Konstantinos spoke about Plethon during the ceremony, stating that had the old scholar been still among them, he would wish for peace among the Romans and for civilized discussion to be held among them. Beyond the earlthy squabbles and the legacy that the apostate would leave behind, his only desire was to see the Empire and its people be reborn stronger than ever before.

While the Plethonists would be appeased, the Orthodox faithful were angered that imperial government did not condemn Plethon as he was put to rest. After the funeral, the controversy would gradually fade away and the Empire was able to return to a brief sense of normality until tensions would inevitably return.

With militarism growing within the expansionist nature of the Empire in the new world, the dynatoi would begin to truly evolve into a new class of its own that separated itself from the traditional aristocrats from the Old World. As the elite landed nobility within the Empire, they would begin evolving into an emerging class of warrior elite. While the clergy would preach, the merchants engage in commerce, and the commoners performed the heavy labor, the Dynatoi would become known for going out to train and hunt in the arts of combat.

With many noble officers already serving in charge of the military command, the position would only be recently solidified under law, ensuring a reliable influx of competent leaders for the imperial army. Along with having the privilege of a pronoia, which confers temporary tax-exempt status, the Dynatoi would retain a heavy influence upon military politics and diplomatic matters as the first noble houses to be founded entirely in Elyisum began to appear and grow in influence.

As the Northmen continued to share contact with the Romans to their south, a band of seasoned yet impulsive Varangian warriors would offer their servies as bodyguards to Konstantinos XI. In return for converting to Eastern Orthodoxy and fighting alongside imperial soldiers, the Emperor would champion the return of the Varangian Guard, letting the warriors be molded with training and lodgings within the capital. In return for providing the crucially low manpower that the Empire had lacked, the Northmen would settle among their Vinlandic brethren within a quarter of the imperial capital.

With the modernization and growth of the military, Konstantinos XI would implement various reforms upon the infantry. Consisting of semi-professional soldiers who would go out on campaign in exchange for the right to collect taxes on certain properties, the infantry would be decently equipped and retain decent discipline from their training under dynatoi captains and generals. Many of these soldiers, primarily farmers and laborers, would be effective warriors although were somewhat unreliable. Importantly, the Emperor would view such a development as being astronomically more capable than a local militia.

Ten years after embarking on the flight from Europe, the exiled nation that would be constructed around the Elysian Bay would already begin to rival the sad remnant of an empire that had been left behind in the old world, yet in its current form, it had lacked an institution that had remained behind across the sea. Guilds, an important union of experienced tradesmen that were once vibrant within the walls of the old city, merely hadn’t existed within the New World. Craftsmen guilds existed for every art and industry within the physical world, while alchemists and apothecaries existed to tend to the spiritual world.

Konstantinos XI would contribute to the strong but singular Arte dei Delfini and the Merchant Class to officially aid in reinstating the foundation of new guilds across the empire, catering to the growing industries and social areas across the Empire.

Following the landing, Nea Konstantinopolis was constructed out of necessity with little thought for future planning initially. Now that the Empire was thriving beyond its walls, the time had come to transform the heartland as a strategy of urban redevelopment began to transform the cities across the width of the Elysian Bay. Nea Konstantinopolis in particular would receive special focus as the imperial capital, being designed off the extensive plans developed by Prince Theophilos, to transform the collection of ramshackle buildings thrown together with what was on hand at the time into an urban marvel that Augustus would have been proud to build.

With tensions easing between the Christians and Plethonists, the actions taken by the imperial government in its unofficial stance of support to the Orthodox Church would be enough to alarm Plethonist followers. Growing increasingly distrustful of the Christians, the Plethonists began to arm themselves for protection as the heathens viewed the actions of the crown as hostile or outright threatening. With the movement swelling in size, now numbering in the thousands and making up a growing portion of the entire population, a significant number of Plethonists would congregate in the recently founded city of Troizen, taking advantage of the lack of local assemblies and administration and seizing the city and the surrounding area under Plethonist control. Several detachments of Roman soldiers would defect to the Plethonist cause, fortifying the captured town and preventing an outright intervention to march in immediately.

Representatives of the ‘Ekklesia’ would reach the imperial court, demanding an audience with the Emperor, before making a list of demands. In exchange for autonomy and self-governance, the Plethonists would throw their full support behind the Emperor and reaffirm their loyalty to the Empire. Konstantinos XI rejected the demands outright before ordering the representatives to be arrested on the spot, listening to the alarmed heathens be taken away screaming before being imprisoned. With the capture of Troizen, the Emperor wouldn’t allow their demands to set a precedent. Knowing that this would cause an armed revolt, the full might of the imperial army would be sent to liberate Troizen.

Arriving along Methenai, the Imperial Army would march straight into Troizen to liberate the city from Plethonist control. Plethonist forces would be made up primarily of armed militia and few professional soldiers in the ranks, but importantly, the heathens would have the exceedingly rare cavalry within their ranks. The Roman forces, however, were far more numerous and well-equipped, alongside having experienced leadership that was used to dealing with local and barbaroi insurrections.

Plethonist forces would make the first move as the Imperial Army came into view, hoping to strike the Imperial Army with a decisive strike to bleed them dry. Plethonist forces used the terrain to their advantage and inflicted heavy casualties before the experience of the imperial army and stronger tactical maneuvers would cause a rout. Alexandros Palaiologos would be captured following the battle and executed shortly after, falling along with the thousands of men and women who had joined in his rebellion. The Imperial Army would march into Troizen and pacify the entire city, liberating the small settlement and saving the grateful Christians within the city. The remainder of the Plethonists who had broken ranks would flee into the wilderness, while Plethonists of high standing within the movement would be executed. Even with this victory, the Imperial Army had lost thousands of men. Soldiers that were extremely difficult to replace due to the lack of manpower and population

After the liberation of Troizen, tensions between the Christians and Plethonists reached breaking point. Orthodox and Plethonist zealots would both take to the streets of settlements as mob violence would be roused, resulting in churches and temples being ransacked and looted. Mobs of both faiths would descend on the homes of heretics, massacring the inhabitants and striking fear deep into their hearts. Lives would already be lost, while the Imperial army tried to restore order in the provinces and contain the violence.

Konstantinos XI would be less than proactive in dealing with the increasing number of Plethonists within the Empire, taking a stance at keeping the peace despite the situation growing out of control. The aftermath of Troizen had deeply alarmed the Emperor, listening to the reports from captains and generals about accounts from the battle itself. The bloodshed that followed and the horrors that had stained the birth of a new city.

While remaining faithful to Orthodoxy, the Church itself had deemed the situation to be out of the Emperor’s control and would officially step in. The Patriarch and his closest associates in the church would make no attempt to hide the resentment that they had over the Emperor’s actions, but now, the church had come together. In a private meeting, Konstantinos XI lamented about his past actions and only sought to keep the peace. The Patriarch would openly suggest that the crown had been paralyzed and unwilling to handle the crisis at its doorstep, and sharing the Emperor’s worries and grievances would propose a radical solution that he argued could be mutually beneficial to the Empire. Not much would be known about the words shared in the meeting, but upon its conclusion, the time for action had come.

Seal of the Roman Inquisition in Elysium, with the Christian Chi-Rho symbol and alpha-omega. ​

Konstantinos XI and the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would declare the establishment of a Roman Inquisition, which would sit above normal authorities but remain subservient only to the Emperor, with the primary objective of ridding the Empire of the Plethonist plague once and for all, alongside ensuring Orthodox primacy in the new world. With reluctance but holding firm conviction, the Emperor had unknowingly entered into the point of no return…
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It's nice to see some happy moments... and Konstantinos and Theophilos are both brothers and brothers-in-law now!

Aida also seems useful in the game.

Indeed! Pay close attention to the Prince, he's due to play a very important role in future chapters

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 7: The Plethonist Revolt (1456-1462)​

With the rebellion coming to a dramatic end at Troizen, whatever remaining thread of goodwill and connection that the Plethonists and Christians would share with one another would be severed entirely. Already suffering the loss of lives as bloodshed and violence eclipsed every major settlement across the entire Empire, the social order began to gradually break down into tribalism and mob violence. Lives would be lost as zealots of both faiths attacked one another, churches and plethonist temples would be ransacked and looted, and the imperial army struggled to maintain order.

With the capture and resulting rebellion at Troizen, it would be publicly viewed among the populace and the imperial establishment as the Plethonists pre-emptively taking the initiative and drawing first blood. Along with a more staunchly anti-roman culture and doctrine among the Plethonists, who largely viewed themselves as the inheritors of ancient Hellas in both mantle and faith, their views would clash with their righteous orthodox brethren who turned towards the church and the throne for guidance. As Konstantinos XI and the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis finally took the matter into their own hands with the establishment of a Roman Inquisition, the era of peace since the landing was about to come to a brief and crashing end.

The Roman Inquisition, tasked with containing the Plethonist movement and preventing their dogma from infecting the minds of the populace further, would be granted the resources, tools, and jurisdiction needed to accomplish their means. Sitting above the legal authorities of the imperial government and remaining subservient solely to the Emperor, the Inquisition would prove to be terrifyingly efficient in their duties, quickly building a reputation of the Inquisition for brutality and fear that would exist long after the Plethonist menace passed.

Authorizing and supervising cruel death sentences along with brutal torture methods designed to break the spirits of the plethonists, the Plethonist's most infamous execution method was the burning of the condemned alive at the stake, which would be reserved for Plethonists and Crypto-Plethonists that had committed the most serious of offenses. Known as the ‘Baptism of Fire’ among the Inquisition, such brutal methods would alarm Konstantinos XI and visibly shake him.

The Emperor couldn’t back from preventing the Inquisition from doing their jobs, even if it involved them working outside of the legal process to the dismay of the populace. His hands were already stained enough with blood, and Konstantinos only hoped that the Inquisition could end the Plethonist plague completely to prevent further loss of life.

With the Plethonist movement becoming far more militant and rebellious since the Troizen Rebellion, the sentiment of an encroaching and threatening christian government would alarm the leadership of the movement deeply. Much of their support base, in particular being made up of farmers who had fled the odyssey, would be swayed by the Plethonist cause and abandon Christendom. Now making up a sizable minority within the empire, the Plethonists viewed themselves as not behind beholden to the empire and its laws, and would cease to pay taxes outright.

Bessarion and the Plethonists would launch another scathing attack against Christendom and the Empire as they armed themselves in the capital, patrolling the streets in armed mobs as they attempted to take their fortune outside of the capital and relocate it to safer and far more sympathetic lands that existed within the Plethonist strongholds. The Church and the Crown, making it clear that the Plethonists would no longer be tolerated, acted quickly and brought the Imperial Army back to Nea Konstantinopolis to deal with the heathens to secure the capital. With the founding of the Inquisition, who was tasked with rooting out the Plethonists and safeguarding Christendom, Konstantinos XI sought to set an example. No longer remaining paralyzed with inaction and unease, the Emperor remained steadfast and righteous.

Shortly after the last embers of rebellion had been put down at Troizen, the Plethonists would riot within Nea Konstantinopolis and make an attempt to seize the capital. Initially intended to express anger against the persecution of their faith, the rebellion would turn into a violent riot, with Plethonists attacking Christians throughout the city. Mobs would ransack and destroy numerous public buildings, several churches would be burnt to the ground, and streets would be turned into violent urban battlefields as blood would be spilled on the streets The capital’s garrison would barely hold the Plethonists back, unable to muster a sufficient force of soldiers and volunteers to enforce any form of martial law.

After several days of violent rioting and back-and-forth control of the capital shifting between the Plethonists and the City Garrison, the Imperial Army would arrive fresh from their victory over Troizen. With the recent founding of the Inquisition and with aid from the Varangian Guard, the Imperial Army would clash with the Plethonist rebellion directly head-on and fight to restore control of the city. In no mood to deal with the heathens who had already slain so many of their companions, the experienced imperial army put a swift end to the riots after a week of violence.

Plethonist rebels would be slain in their thousands as the Imperial Army encircled entire streets and massacred them where they stood in a bout of righteous anger. Some soldiers in the capital would discover that their loved ones had been lost to the Plethonist rebels, only strengthening their rage against the heathens and directing their anger further to destroy them. Plethonists who attempted to escape the city would be captured and swiftly executed, while some would be captured and interrogated excessively by the recently founded Inquisition. Despite losing thousands of lives clearing the capital from the heathen populace, moving building by building, the Plethonists that survived and evaded capture evacuated outward into the wilderness and towards their strongholds. It would be after crossing the rivers that the die would be cast, and what had been seen as inevitable would finally begin.

Elysium, the name of the paradise that would await the great heroes of Ancient Hellas, would see its bountiful fields and fledgling cities erupt into discontent and turmoil as Roman society would be divided among the faiths that defined the exiled empire. Faith between the Christians and Plethonists would ignite the wildfire that consumed the empire, as the Plethonists finally declared their open intention to overthrow the monarchy and reshape the Empire to their own means. With the death of Plethon, the apostate’s teachings would be reshaped and twisted into something that the elder would have never dreamed of.

Faith was what had allowed the Greeks and Latins to come together and find a land beyond the great ocean in what had been the end of their times. Faith is what would keep them together during the voyage across the endless ocean, and now faith would be what would split the Empire apart as Plethonists launched their greatest rebellion. Even with the founding of the Inquisition to contain the plague, its own zealotry would do far greater harm than good, aggravating the bloodshed between Christians and Plethonists as forced conversions exasperated the problems.

As the ruined streets of Nea Konstantinopolis turned into madness, Konstantinos XI and the Empire remained steadfast to bring a swift and decisive end to the Plethonist movement for what it had become. Plethonist atrocities and violence against their perceived enemies would bring droves of the populace to support and reaffirm their loyalty to the church and the empire, even those who had remained sympathetic to the Plethonist cause would be turned astray.

With an overwhelming amount of the Empire remaining loyal to Christendom and the Empire, the Plethonist revolts would be coordinated along Kleomenon and the rural mountainous stronghold around Detis. United against the heathens for showing their true colors, Emperor Konstantinos XI and the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would make a joint announcement alongside one another in the damaged streets of the imperial capital. Disillusioned by the ways of the Plethonists and terrified of their apparent lust for power and control, both the Emperor and the Patriarch remained steadfast and were more than ready to bring an end to the Plethonists once and for all.

The Imperial Court, along with much of Roman society, would share a similar attitude. Remaining steadfast to the faith, the Empire would direct all of its efforts to bring an end to the Plethonists. Its objectives and methods would be clear for the Imperial Army and the Inquisition. For the survival of the Empire and all that the Romans would hold dear, they were to be exterminated. None were to be alive, and every crypto-plethonist was to be found and expunged like the vermin they were. With simple orders to put an end to the revolts, the empire quickly got to work.

Crossing into Kleomenon, the Imperial Army ventured deep into enemy territory and struck hard at the Plethonist rebels that had captured the city. Losses were kept to a minimum due to the immediate response of the Imperial Army, aided by Lenape auxiliaries, and the brief and unorganized nature of the Plethonist mob to fully launch and organized resistance against the Imperial Army. With Kleomenon pacified, the Inquisitors went straight to work rooting out and exterminating the Plethonists in the region, aided by a small garrison of soldiers.

With a victory already decimating much of the Plethonist ranks, a major center of resistance would be struck in Detis. Plethonist leadership and militia would have time to prepare for the Imperial Army, using the high terrain to their advantage and entrenching their defenses to prepare for the battle ahead. An Imperial Victory would see thousands more Plethonists be slain, at the cost of crippling imperial manpower and expertise. Many Plethonists would be captured, and Plethonist leaders among the defeated militia would be burned alive.

The remainder would be captured as prisoners, left to be dealt with by the Inquisition and the Empire to be punished as they saw fit. Bessarion, the successor to Plethon and the leader of the movement would be found among the dead after the battle. The Plethonists would never fully recover from the battle and its loss.

With another victory being secured, Plethonist morale would plummet as any hope of a quick victory would collapse among their ranks along with much of their experienced ranks. With the Imperial Army under patrol across their territories and spanning across the width of the Empire, any rebellious sentiments were quickly pacified, often with violence. Leontios Boumbalis would be elevated to the position of the first Grand Inquisitor of the Roman Inquisition, named by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis but selected personally by the Emperor.

Known for his devout piety, Boumbalis was a minor clergyman from the Old World who became a zealous bishop within Elysium. Boumbalis would target the pacified Plethonists in the subjugated provinces and would owe to the use of torture and cruelty to extract confession. Along with other means of brutal measures, along with the triumph of the Christians in pacifying any remaining Plethonist sentiment within the area, the area would see a rapid demographic shift as it once again embraced Orthodoxy en-masse.

Plethonist militia and zealots, while largely decimated by the multiple decisive battles that had broken their ranks, would continue to strike fear into the populace in small actions through the means of terrorism. A church in Neriton would be completely razed after being sacked by a Plethonist mob, impacting the Orthodox community deeply. The imperial government would finance the rebuilding of the church, and for the period of its construction, a small handful of armed guards would oversee its safe construction.

With the Inqusition holding trials and sentencing among the Plethonists, some of the self-appointed inquisitors would set out and conduct their own cases, purging heretical elements within society and wiping the slate clean of their influence. Trials by Fire remained the defining method of execution for the Inqusition, always conducted in public, as charred remains of Plethonists would be used as a psychological weapon against the heathens. Even with the tribunal's purpose to maintain Orthodoxy, the Inquisition had no legal right to actually kill the convict or determine the manner that which its most serious offenders would die. Such a right would be reserved to the Emperor.

As the most common method of execution, a list of serious culprits would be brought before the Emperor. Konstantinos XI would sentence a Plethonist merchant, known to have a history of embezzlement and greed, to be burned at the stake. Merchant families within the region would be targeted within the mountainous territory around Detis due to the strong trade presence due to local industry in the area.

During the crisis, the imperial bureaucracy would suffer in an ugly manner as multiple scandals over the previous year would be brought to the fore. With the Emperor stressed and preoccupied with the Plethonists, the council that still governed Nea Konstantinople would suffer multiple cases of rampant corruption that had paralyzed the government within the damaged city. Konstantinos XI would eradicate the problem with the formal dissolution of the council, having long outlived its own usefulness as the Empire grew in size.

As the religious civil war deepened from a conventional conflict into an armed insurgency, roaming bandits and smugglers would thrive in the chaos as outlaws openly defied the Emperor. Attacking travelers and merchants, often positioning themselves between major settlements in hideouts, a sizeable detachment of the imperial army was sent to the frontier to pacify the area of outlaws and any potential barbaroi threat.

With further strife befalling the massive loss of life between the religious factions, the supply lines for food and other goods would break down in some areas. Some areas would be deeply struck with famine, accelerating the chaos of the revolt as a starved populace struggled to provide for themselves. With the local aqueduct network having recently completed construction in the area, the famine would remain short-lived but served as a powerful reminder of the misery that the rebellions had caused.

With the Plethonists contained by the Imperial Army and local authorities, the Imperial government was about to be put to its greatest test as an ancient threat from across the sea would find new meaning and invigoration within the New World. Spurred by the state-sponsored persecution and eradication of Plethonists, Orthodox hardliners would swell and embrace the heretical leanings of Iconoclasm once more. Motivated by a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments which forbid the making and worshipping of graven images or any likeness of being, the Iconoclast zealots aimed for the deliberate destruction of religious icons along with other cultural symbols and monuments.

Laying waste to icons and statues of saints across the capital and nearby towns, the Emperor would take personal command of the Imperial Army. No mercy was to be given, lest a new fire would consume the nation.

With much of the capital still remaining destroyed due to the Plethonist riots in the capital, Nea Konstantinopolis was ill-prepared for an extended siege due to a loss of supply and infrastructure. Armed to the teeth and wearing a suit of armor that had survived the journey across the Great Ocean from Hellas, Konstantinos XI would lead the entire imperial army with reinforcement from capital militia and native auxiliaries. With a gamble that might cost the empire dearly, Konstantinos XI lept into the fray.

With whatever manpower remaining being used to bolster imperial forces, the Emperor would achieve a hard-fought victory against the Iconoclast mob on the fields outside of the imperial capital. Struggling initially against the rebels, the Emperor would turn the tide against the rebels as their morale faltered. As the Iconoclasts froze during the heat of the battle and attempted to flee, the Emperor would strangle the life out of the Iconoclasts and removed any chance for a meaningful chance to retreat.

Trapping the Iconoclasts against a nearby river, Konstantinos XI would push the momentum to move forward and slaughter any of the heretical forces they could. With morale plummeting among the Iconoclasts, and realizing they were trapped, the Imperial Army surged forward killing everything in their path as thousands of heretics would be cut down. Iconoclast rebels who would fall victim to the imperial army but survive would be trampled to death by the advancing army. With nowhere left to go, the Emperor would strike the rebellion down and develop a reputation as a cruel tactician.

The surviving rebels would surrender to the imperial army, whereas prisoners of war, would be dealt with harshly. Most of the rebels would be killed following the war, while noblemen would be ransomed their families, who would be forced to send the empire large sums of their wealth depending on the social status of the captive.

Within the years of conflict, the Plethonist Revolt would ignite into an orgy of violence that destroyed the fragile peace that would exist within the nation. Further pacifying the defeated Iconoclast mobs and preventing any further bloodshed through force of arms, Nea Konstantinopolis had survived the bloodshed in a silenced hush. The resurgence of iconoclasm would be destroyed as quickly as it came, and a second Triumph of Orthodox was to take place during the first Sunday of Great Lent.

Plethonism would be annihilated as a cultural and religious movement, and with much of the cult's destruction during the revolt, the threat of a pagan resurgence and goodwill towards the movement would die the moment that violence had eclipsed the nation. Many of the pagans would continue to persist in secret, but the fuel that had burned the fire would lose much of its spark, leading to a slow agonizing death for the few Plethonists that remained in the years to come. Konstantinos XI ventured back into the capital with the imperial army almost in triumph, flanked by members of the Varangian Guard and faithful guard dogs. Victory would come with a heavy price, however, as the loss of thousands of lives would destroy much of the empire’s demographics for decades to come.

A sense of normalcy that hadn’t been seen in the city since the bloodshed had begun would descend upon the capital and the Empire, as all opposing factions had finally been brought to heed and annihilated. For the first time in years, peace had returned to Elysium, and Konstantinos hoped that the Romans would no longer shed the blood of one another for as long as he reigned.

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The Empire keeps living

I mean I always found it a bit odd given Leif Erikson was a devout Christian convert and he was actually responsible for the conversion of his father’s settlements on Greenland to Christianity that they lean into the Norse faith so hard for the Vinlanders. But then again this entire mod is just “rule of cool” at its core, and that’s why we love it.

The mod definitely follows the rule of cool. My headcannon was that Vinland probably started as more as a Christian land. But after a lot of time not in contact with Europe as well as the presumed "hardships" they went through, the reverted to this new style Norse, with some small lingering Christian elements and probably some larger Native American influences.

With the defeat of the Plethoist movement, makes you wonder what sort of relations the Proto-Elysians will have with the Norsemen in the coming years! Glad to see the discussion!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Interlude II: Looking Back (1462)​

Konstantinos looked outwards into the Elysian Bay, leaning over on the balcony as he looked outward into what had been built in such little time. The wind was billowing and blowing across his greying hair, his eyes locking onto the people that were dotted around and about in the harbor and beyond in distant villages surrounding the water. The sun was barely in the sky as the sunrise peered over the horizon. Fishing boats roamed around and dotted the bat, its waters unusually still for such a windy day before his eyes would be focused upon something that he silently focused upon. Small silhouettes, children, coming to the encounter of a fisherman who had just returned to shore.

It was something that he could have never given his wife. His romantic life had already suffered through so much tragedy, that both of his former wives had died from complications involving their pregnancy. His life would change drastically when he encountered Aurelia back on the distant shores of Sicily, but the life of a family would elude the royal couple. Aurelia was unable to bear a child, and no matter what they did, the promise of an heir of their own would never come to be. It was the reason that Prince Theophilos was the heir to the throne. And that generations from now, Theophilos’s children would carry the legacy of the imperial family to the future in Elysium.

“Konstantinos, can you hear me?” Aurelia broke his silence, placing her right hand on the shoulder of the emperor. The Empress of the Romans looked at her husband with worry. It had been only a couple of weeks since the last embers of the Plethonist Revolts had come to an end within the Empire, but she had worried deeply about her husband. He had been sleeping less and less as fatigue wrecked havoc on his body, Konstantinos having suffered through sleepless nights and worrisome days.

The Emperor turned his sight and focused on his wife’s face, his heart calming down as he stared into her eyes. It had been years since the day they had met in Sicily and she had barely aged a day. Konstantinos lamented her beauty at her age, even while he himself was almost sixty. Aurelia had been a guiding light in his life that served as the perfect distraction from the burdens he had carried for so long already.

“It’s nothing. Woke up, and couldn’t go back to sleep.” Konstantinos spoke, turning towards the bay as the wooden floor creaked underneath him before placing a hand against the railing.

Aurelia looked over to her husband, a frown on her face as she studied her husband. She knew Konstantinos better than anyone else could. The silence had returned to the Elysium Fields through bloodshed and horror. Aurelia didn’t want to say anything to upset him, but she could understand that the blood of those who had been lost was entirely on his hands. He had made a promise to never allow the Romans to ever suffer from such vulnerability since the earliest days in the new world, and yet close to two decades later, the empire was once extinguished.

The Empress of the Romans moved next to her husband onto the balcony, holding his hand that rested on the railing with a gentle touch. Her hand, still warm, would be placed right over his. She looked at him as they both looked into the horizon together. “You have done well Konstantinos. More than well. Those kids are more than lucky then they would ever know.”

Konstantinos paused for a moment, not realizing that she had been looking at the children along the harbor. “How so?”

“I have heard about all the stories from how it was. You know, back in…” She paused, not completing the sentence and taking a moment to collect her own words. “You have given them a future. And to all of your people. I’m beyond proud of you”

Konstantinos listened to her compliments and remained silent for a long time, listening to the faint sound of crashing waves upon the shoreline before finally breaking his silence. “Did you know that I opposed my brother’s idea to leave the city?”

Aurelia was taken by surprise. It was a sore subject for her husband and something that was rarely ever brought up in conversation, let alone even in such company of husband and wife. Konstantinos’s own bravery during the flight from Europe was well known among the ships, as was his leadership during the conflicts against the Barbary pirates and during the Great Storm. Yet she had never known about what he had felt before everything had come into place.

“I had called him a coward. Delusional. Ioannes was so desperate that he was willing to bet the fate of the empire for some old god-forsaken books. Every time that I had remained in Konstantinopolis and he had made his travels through Europe, he would return home to bring nothing but heartache and discord. He was obsessed with finding a way. I wasn’t going to let my brother gamble away our Empire.” Konstantinos told her, turning to see his wife listening quietly with curiosity.

“I even agreed to sacrifice our church to the damned papacy if that meant we could find whatever we could to save our city. But abandoning it? I couldn’t allow it. It was too much back then. It still is now. I was ready to die for Constantinople and the Empire. Even if the people disagreed with me, they all see me as a hero that I don't deserve to be. They owe their lives to me, and the truth is, I never wanted to be here.”

Aurelia shook her head and sighed. Her eyes focused upon Konstantinos’s face as the silver strands of white would take over his greying hair. Time had passed for everything. First, it had been a few months, then it would become a few years within the blink of an eye. The Empress of the Romans looked before her husband and gripped his hand for a moment before turning to look at his eyes again. This was deeper than the many thoughts that Konstantinos had kept to himself. This was guilt that had been eating away at the Emperor for a long time.

“Everything that had been done was all Ioannes, and then Theophilos. The two of them made the plans, planning the ships, and dismantling the city that we had sworn our lives to defend. And I just let all of this happen. I stood there like an idiot, watching as we threw everything together for the most slim and impossible chances. This was all them.” Konstantinos kept speaking. His expression looked tired, yet it was difficult to tell if it was the lack of sleep that the Emperor had been suffering or if this was his guilt eating away at him. “Now I’m left forever wondering about what if we had stayed in Hellas.”

Aurelia contemplated saying something to reassure him. Anything that she felt like saying would be dismissed by the stoic husband who had tried to remain strong for such a long time, but now, the cracks had finally begun to show. Konstantinos had done everything that he could for his people, be they Greek or Latin, and had given the Empire the leadership that it had desperately needed for so very long. Even if the terrible cost had come with his own happiness, the Emperor was viewed as a hero. Aurelia turned around to look at him again, placing her hands on the side of her husband’s face and looking at him in the eyes.

“But you are here, Konstantinos. The children are with their families, and they are here. So are you people, who followed you across the ocean when everything seemed lost. For all these years, you have been here. Leading, fighting, and making sure that we have been given a second chance.” Aurelia told him. Konstantinos paused for a moment and looked away, almost out of shame, before Aurelia tilted his head to revert his gaze back before him. Both of their eyes would lock with each other. “Your brother might have been the beginning. But everything has been all yours. All of this. The people have given you a chance to begin again and have real lives once more for the first time in generations. They are no longer trapped inside the walls of a dead city. You are a hero, Konstantinos. And you are a hero that I have loved with all my heart ever since that day in Sicily.”

Aurelia leaned into her husband to kiss him on the cheek before smiling at him, not breaking any concentration. “So please, stop this. Accept what you are and have become, and not what you are not. Not the last emperor of a dead empire, but the hero of a new one.” She told him, letting the moment pass for a second before looking back down to the bay. “I would rather be at the beginning of this story than at the end”

Aurelia let her hand slip away from her husband and walked back into the meager palace that had been built ever since their arrival, leaving the Emperor alone on the balcony to watch the sunrise over his realm. Konstantinos watched as the boys would reunite with their father, a fisherman, back at the small harbor. From such a distance away, all four of the children would excitedly wrap their arms around their father in a close hug before he would lead them away.

He smiled and went back inside. It was time to get back to work.

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The Plethonists didn't help their case there, although they were in a terrible position.

Is the wave of iconoclasm ever followed up? That seems like an interesting plotline, especially given the obvious idol-worshiping of the Plethonists...

Gameplay wise? No, but there's no reason why I can't have the Iconoclasts remain around for a while longer. Although they were decisively crushed before they became a real threat.

The Plethonists were just asking for it with how hostile they were

Although Elysium is practically free of external threats, they could not help but fight each other over which god from thousands of miles away is real. And whether or not you can draw pictures of Him. Well, hopefully there will be much calm and prosperity now.

One of the earliest major difficulties. With that past, hopefully Elysium will be more internally united and can focus on more productive struggles.

Let's hope that the peace remains!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 8: The Savior (1462-1469)​

The Plethonist Revolts would become the first major struggle within the new world, where much of the Roman population would be devastated in some form or another from the resulting religious civil war that had taken place. Orthodoxy would emerge triumphant over the rebellious Plethonist movement, where its remaining followers would be hunted into extinction by a vengeful Inquisition and Imperial forces. Victory would be largely pyrrhic, as the loss of life had decimated as much as a quarter of the population and left much of the infrastructure that had been built in the settlements around the Elysian Bay into ruin.

With the memories that had been carried from the odyssey, a sizable portion of the men and women who had journeyed across the sea and braved the storm would lose their lives. The Empire would struggle to recover, but with every passing year and the severity of the revolt winding down, the emerging generation of Elysium-born Romans would help rebuild what had been so tragically lost. As the Plethonists and Iconoclasts had looked back into the ancient past, the Romans would only look towards the future once more. Faith was returning back onto the streets, and the misery of what had been lost was gradually fading away.

The Eastern Roman Empire following the Plethonist Revolts, c.1462​

With the brutal conflict coming to a close, much of the population and economy slowly began to rebound. As many Romans still had dreamed of their old homeland, many more would turn towards their new home and look outward. With peace returning, the silence that had blanketed the sounds of bustling markets and laughing children would be banished as the sounds of life would return. Imperial efforts to lead the reconstruction efforts of the Empire would quickly be taken, where the empire would establish humanitarian aid camps across the entire periphery of its territories. From the capital itself to Prosphorion and Neriton, camps that would be organized would distribute food and water, and provide medical aid and shelter to the homeless and orphaned from the conflict that had wrecked so much of the realm.

The Church would further conduct religious services to help aid the fractured morale and spiritual well-being of the populace, aided by volunteers who would provide whatever was needed to the much less fortunate or fractured. The volunteers would tirelessly labor to heal and rebuild the communities damaged by the war, openly forsaking and condemning the violence suffered by the Christian faithful and fully embracing the unity of the faith in every aspect. The frontier colonia had been largely untouched by the Plethonist Revolts, and with a rising population that had been steadily climbing since the arrival in the new world, the Empire was expected to return to its pre-revolt levels of prosperity within a few decades. The tragedy and misery of the revolts would remain for generations to come, but hope had once again returned and triumphed.

With the formal end of the religious strife within the nation, and with close integration to its subjects for many years, the Empire would begin to formally bring the Piscataway and Lenepe into the fold with their annexation. The Lenepe had been converted to Orthodoxy as the first tribe in Elysium to adopt the faith, while the Piscataway remained among their roots despite a heavily religious and economic presence within their tribal lands from Roman missionaries and merchants. With how ingrained the tribes had been, annexation was expected to be swift and effortless to the bureaucracy.

Much of Nea Konstantinopolis had been destroyed in riots and further violence by the Plethonist mobs, which had resulted in massive property damage and the desecration of churches and homes across the capital. The Cathedral of Saint Peter, the largest stone church in the Empire and the site of where Prince Theophilos would marry Aida Orsini, would be almost completely destroyed by vengeful Plethonists during their rampage. While lacking the scale of the cathedrals in the Old World, it was the largest that was built in the capital since the first landing in the New World.

The Cathedral would be in need of urgent repair, lest the foundation of the badly damaged structure collapse and destroy it. The Metropolitan of Elysium had expected the crown to finance the reconstruction of the church and a general redecoration of the renovated church, whereas Konstantinos XI would eagerly finance the renovation and further reconstruction for the Cathedral. Once more showing his devotion to his faith, Konstantinos XI would prove to be popular among the faithful populace for committing and further solidifying the church and its place within the new world, while the act of such an important house of worship would prove popular among the populace in general.

After almost a decade of construction around the perimeter of the capital’s limits, the Theophilian Walls would finally be completed in its entirety. Named after its architect, the ever-dutiful and diligent Prince Theophilios, the framework of the formidable structure would be completed despite the difficulties it would face under the constraints of limited resources and the Plethonist Revolt delaying its construction for several years. Stone would replace the wooden palisades that had once made up the barrier of the capital as the first few quarries would produce the stone needed for further construction.

Using the records and ancient texts, the original basis of the Theodosian Walls from the old city would serve as an example on a far more limited scale. Surrounding the city would be a triple defense system, including a moat, a tall formidable stone outer wall, and an enormous inner wall. Not built with the same methods and materials as its predecessor, the Theophilian Walls would make Nea Konstantinopolis virtually impenetrable to any native besieger. The designs were allocated to be flexible and maneuverable by Prince Theophilios, designed to work with the growth of the capital rather than constraining it within its formidable barriers. It would be expected by the prince that the defensive walls would serve to equal its ancient inspiration back in the old city and that many generations from now, it was expected to completely surpass it as the greatest fortification system in the world.

With the integration of its northern barbaroi subjects, attention would be focused southward towards the nearby Tuscarora people. Holding a relation to the Haudenosaunee peoples in the north, the tribes would migrate to the far south prior to the Roman landing in the new world. Sitting in an important position and remaining diplomatically isolated and weak, the imperial army was given orders to bring the Tuscarora into the fold.

Roman arms would meet with native forces at the Battle of Skarureh, where the Imperial Army would completely wipe out the entirety of the Tuscarora forces in a single decisive battle. Completely overpowering the barbaroi in single combat, Manuel Choumnos would further defeat the remainder of the forces in detail before destroying whatever few survivors remained after the battle. With no force left to oppose the advance, peace would quickly be made with the Tuscarora after a brief period of siege. The Tuscarora would be vassalized as the new subject of the Empire, replacing the void that had been left by the Lenape and the Piscataway had left.

With reconstruction and recovery of the economy underway, the damage that had been wrought would provide a unique opportunity to rebuild communities that had suffered so much. In the newly incorporated region of Pythagora, once the homeland of the Lenepe, an architect named Cyril Tzimiskes would lead a grand construction of a vast market hall. With a heavy Renaissance influence in its design and architecture, the building would quickly become well-known as a major symbol of the region as an important area for merchants to congregate and sell their wares.

The Susquehannock, a small tribe that would exist between the Romans and the Haudenosaunee, would become a valuable target for expansion as expansion became northward focused once more. Seeking to have a friendly subject beyond the Apalesians, Imperial Forces marched into native lands once more to bring the tribe under Roman influence.

Once more led by Manuel Choumnos, who had become known as its most capable general, Roman arms and leadership would once more see another native tribe completely obliterated on the battlefield at the Battle of Atrakwaye. Surrender of the tribe would soon follow and the Susquehannock would become vassalized as subjects of the Empire. In what would become imperial policy under such conflicts, imperial influence and diplomats would enter into the tribal lands to restore damaged relations and bridge the gap between the native society with that of the imperial one.

Expeditionary scouts that would venture outward in all directions in the search for Naphtha would report their success of locating a reliable and easily accessible source, discovering a source to the northeast of Nea Konstantinopolis, and charting the surrounding area in great detail. The scouting party would come into first contact with a tribe known as the Erie, who were close to the Haudenosaunee lands and near the vast Borealian Lakes. Fortunately for the Romans, the Erie were remarkably friendly and receptive to Roman diplomats and traders.

As reports and other discoveries would be reported back to the capital, another trade deal would be offered to the Erie with highly generous terms. Showering the tribes with wealth in the form of gold and silver, along with a multitude of steel weapons and armor, all the Empire would seek in return was to secure the naphtha reserves for themselves and the means to produce it.

Like the Powhatan before them, the Erie would accept the incredibly generous deal, and the Empire would secure a source of Naphtha for itself. The Erie would become fabulously wealthy among the Elysium barbaroi due to their valuable trade deal and relationship with Roman merchants, which would continue for as long as the tribe would remain friendly with the Empire, while the depleting reserves of naphtha would finally be replenished much to the relief of the Imperial Army.

Unlike the Powhatan, the natives would not migrate out from their homeland and instead remain firmly within the region but under imperial influence. In addition to the blossoming relationship, the Romans would go a step further and guarantee the independence of the Erie to deter potential barbaroi attackers and remain under Roman protection. The Erie, fascinated by the Romans and the European scouts and later traders, would become a keen friend to the Empire for generations to come.

The Lenepe and the Piscataway, after formally being annexed into the Empire, would see a distinct cultural shift as the tribes would see itself undergoing a period of cultural and religious evolution. With a spread of Roman influence and the Greek language into the regions, along with the tribes having largely adopted Orthodoxy over a generation ago, would passively see the tribes becoming thoroughly Romanized by the time of their annexation.

The cultural evolution and the process of tribal assimilation would carry both the best elements of Romization and Hellenization of antiquity, while at the same time, bringing out its worst tendencies. In what would become known as ‘Elysification’ in the coming generations, the term would carry on an entirely new meaning as the cultural process evolved in the coming generations.

As an aging Konstantinos XI would help guide his nation in expansion in almost all areas, a crucially weak area would exist within the small fleet of ships that formed a tiny backbone of an imperial navy. Lacking an experienced number of sailors due to the decimated population decrease that occurred during the Plethonist Revolt, along with a lack of focus upon naval matters as a whole, the imperial navy had quietly performed its mission for years. Before the end of the 1460’s, this would begin to change. Having been dedicated solely to protecting the Elysian Bay as a policing force, the Emperor would begin a wide naval reform that would transform the small fleet into a proper naval power.

With the reforms underway and with a vast expansion ongoing, the imperial navy would play a far greater role in the defense and survival of the state, maintaining its policing duties while having its operations expanded. Vinlandic raiders and traders, while far more experienced sailors than the Romans to their south, began to view the growing fleet with caution.

Christian missionaries and Roman Colonia would contribute to the growth and spread of Orthodox Christianity beyond the Elysian Bay and into the frontier territories. Settlements would become established and later followed by missionaries and organized efforts to spread the gospel into the recently settled lands, while native lands would see a gradual adoption of Christianity at a gradual process. The Inquisition would focus its efforts on maintaining that the Orthodoxy of the realm remained and to prevent any resurgence of Plethonist dogma, while hunting its remaining followers down and arresting them.

Early 16th-century portrait of an older Emperor Theophilos II, the Third Master of the Odyssey. ​

Having served as the sovereign of an Empire that he had built from the ground up, Konstantinos XI’s health would begin to decline over the years passing as gradual illness and the stress of running the Empire during its most important years would wear him down physically. As his hair was transformed into a streak of silver, his resolve and spirit remained burning with life and remained adamant to finish what his brother had destined to build all of those years ago.
In the final weeks of his life, his health would rapidly decline and Konstantinos would remain largely bedridden, having grown weaker with every passing day. Much like his brother before him, Konstantinos would be surrounded by his immediate family. Prince Theophilos and Aida, together with their children, would remain alongside Konstantinos and grant him the comfort he needed in his final days before succession of the crown would ultimately be passed onto the Prince as his successor. Aurelia, Empress of the Romans, would remain with her husband until the very end.

On the late evening of January 31st 1469, Konstantinos XI would enter into a deep sleep that he would never wake up from. He would pass away at the age of sixty-four, having died in his sleep from congestive heart failure. His loss would leave an enormous void in the heart of the Empire, having been there from the beginning and guiding the Romans in their new homeland to the best of his worldly ability. A week of mourning would follow his death, while the newly crowned Theophilios II would succeed Konstantinos as Emperor of the Romans.

As another era would begin in Elysium, Theophilos had enormous shoes to fill. It would be his reign that would lay the modern foundation for the world that he would build.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Saint Konstantinos XI Palaiologos
Lived: February 8th 1405 - January 31st 1469
Despot of the Morea: 1428-1445
Emperor of the Romans: 1445 - 1469
The Second Master of the Odyssey

Konstantinos XI as depicted in 1584 by André Thevet.​

Konstantinos XI would become a pivotal figure within the history of the Elysians, working tirelessly upon his tragic ascension to the throne for the betterment of his subjects. Within the span of his reign, his leadership abilities in all aspects allowed for the rapid growth of what had once been a refugee camp into a thriving regional power in a quarter of a century. Continuing further upon his brother's work, Konstantinos XI would be recognized posthumously as one of the three Masters of the Odyssey, fighting against every odd and struggle that was thrown against him and giving them Elysium in return. Yet in this promised land, Konstantinos had never expected himself to actually rule, for he had never anticipated he would ever follow his brother and subjects to a new world.

Born in the old city, Konstantinos was the eighth of ten children to Manuel Palaiologos and Helena Dragas, becoming extremely fond of his mother growing up. Little would be known about his early life, but Konstantinos would be admired for many of his attributes, frequently being described for his courage and adventurous nature and was far more comfortable with military matters than with matters of state or diplomacy, though he would prove to be a competent administrator as an active regent for his brother Ioannes VIII on his journey’s away from Constantinople. In 1428, both Konstantinos and Ioannes fended off an attack on the Morea by Carlo I Tocco, ruler of Epirus, and Constantine was proclaimed the Despot of the Morea shortly after the attack. With his siblings Theodore and Thomas, Roman rule would be extended to cover almost the entire Peloponnese for the first time in over two hundred years.

Throughout his life, much like his brother, Konstantinos would marry three separate times. His first and second marriages would result in tragic deaths for both of his spouses, losing both of them following complications with pregnancy and miscarriage. His third marriage would be with Aurelia Orsini, whom he would meet on the journey away from Europe in the docks of Palmero, where the two would happily remain married for the years to come. Both would be a very suitable match for one another, often complimenting one another and having much in common. While a happy marriage would follow, it would be a lonely one, as Aurelia was unable to bear any children. As a result, Konstantinos would delegate his cousin Theophilos as his heir.

In the final months leading up to the Odyssey and the flight from Europe, Konstantinos XI would coordinate much of the men while his other relatives organized logistics. Having remained a skeptic for much of the planning, his leadership abilities would retain a great level of importance during the exodus itself. As Europe was left behind the Grand Fleet would cross into the unknown, and with the tragic loss of his brother Ioannes, Konstantinos would be thrust to carry the mantle of leadership into the fledging exiled state upon the landing in the new world.

Even with the abundance of resources and with much of the populace from the old city being taken upon the fleet, difficulties would immediately begin to place strain on the landing camp of Nea Konstantinopolis. An overburdened administration, the presence of the barbaroi, and an eager yet rapid expansion outward to encompass the Elysian Bay would prove to hamper much of the overextended government structure. Architecture and infrastructure of any kind were nonexistent, forcing the Empire to focus inward until a point of self-sufficiency was attained as buildings and roads were constructed from nothing. Once logistical issues and the direction of the masses were settled would the Romans truly begin to build a new home in the New World.

In the years to follow, under his leadership, Konstantinos would thrive as a competent yet stoic leader among his people. Greeks and Latins, once at each other's throats, began to cooperate and work with one another as animosity would give way to brotherhood. The Emperor would delegate the structure of the new dynatoi, merchants, and clergy of the Empire from practically nothing and would settle disputes between the small yet prospering state within the Elysian Bay.

Beyond its borders, Konstantinos would establish a relationship and trade network of convenience with the Vinlandic colonies in the far north, but the true friend to the Romans would come in the form of the native allies that would remain friendly to the Empire, establishing an entirely new class of Romans within society. The Haudenosaunee would also develop a close friendship with the Empire, especially with the Emperor, who remained open and friendly to their insight much to the annoyance of the Greek aristocrats.

Konstantinos’s greatest trials would come in the form of the short yet brutal Plethonist Revolt, where the pagans attempted to overthrow the Empire and would begin years of slaughter of many righteous Romans. The rebellions that it would cause would be put down at a heavy cost. Following the Plethonist Revolt and its aftermath, Konstantinos remained invested in building the future of his new homeland and invested heavily in safeguarding it for the future. The Emperor would invest heavily into forging unity in laws, customs, and justice while laying the building blocks for his nation, which an aging Emperor had deemed to be worth far more than any military victory.

In the latter half of the decade, Konstantinos’s health began to decline sharply while his resolve remained as strong as ever to finish what his brother had destined to build. On the late evening of January 31st 1469, Konstantinos died peacefully in his sleep from congestive heart failure at the age of sixty-four. The Empire would remain distraught at his loss and enter into a state of mourning for several days, before he would be buried in a private funeral in a small modest tomb on the edge of the recently constructed Imperial Palace. In the late 17th century, Konstantinos’s remains would be exhumed and reburied alongside Ioannes and Theophilos after the construction of the Hagia Theotoke in an elaborate ceremonial funeral, being reunited with his brother and cousin once more in eternal rest. His wife, Aurelia Orsini, would be buried nearby alongside her sister Aida.

Statues of Konstantinos XI would be constructed across all corners of Elysia by future generations, being remembered as a great statesman and soldier in modern times. ​

Konstantinos XI would be canonized as a Saint in 1528, where Konstantinos would be proclaimed as the patron saint of the new Rome that he guided to its home in Elysium, alongside his guidance and efforts to protect Christianity during the Plethonist Revolt. He would be the second and last Master of the Odyssey to be canonized as a saint. His canonization would hold weight under religious reform and the consolidation of Elysian Rites of the independent Elysian Orthodox Church as it drifted away from the ancient Eastern Orthodox church in the Old World.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 9: Proof of Piety (1469-1475)​

The recent death of Konstantinos XI would leave a hole in the heart of the mourning Romans, having just lost the founding father of the Empire upon Elysium who had struggled and fought to build a better future for his people. A small private funeral would be held after his death in the gardens of the Imperial Palace, where the former Emperor would be laid to rest in a solemn ceremony. With a distraught populace in a period of mourning, the succession would pass over to his designated heir, a newly crowned Theophilios II, who would finally get the chance to build his wonders.

Theophilios II would be aided on the throne by his brilliant wife, Empress Aida, and much of Konstantinos’s former advisors and court. Years of recovery had already done much to mend the broken hearts and ruined homes that would span across the width of the Empire, building upon its success slowly as peace began to return as the order of the day. Theophilios would build upon what Konstantinos had left behind, having been blessed with a strong foundation to build upon. It would be from here that Theophilios would craft his wonders, and in the coming years, the Empire would be unrecognizable.

Theophilios II would be invited to the Cathedral of Saint Peter, the largest church in the capital and the seat of the Ecumenical patriarch. It was made out of both stone and wood, resembling more of a pale imitation of the old churches in old Anatolia and Greece, while its simplicity allowed it to be large enough to gather many of the faithful within. Theophilios remembered the Plethonists trying to siege the cathedral during the darkest days of the revolts, trying to break in while the church offered refuge to the dwindled clergy leaders and many pious Romans inside.

Once he was inside, the Emperor’s presence made itself known immediately, gaining the attention of two clergymen inside. A priest and a monk, both different in every single way, show their respect to him. An Orthodox priest stood before the Emperor in traditional garb, while the other was a Catholic monk who came from the small Latin minority within the capital. Even an entire ocean away from the old world, the schism was still causing trouble.

Theophilios II stopped to listen to the two clergymen about their points, listening to their theories and plans to discuss how to prove the empire’s piety in the eyes of the lord, especially after the devastating religious conflict that had plagued the country not so long ago. Theophilios wasn’t as pious as his cousins were, but he still listened to the clergymen, only out of a sense of dedication and not because he wanted to be there. The priest would claim, that in order to prove the Empire’s undying faith in Christ, the capital would have to possess a new church.

A new cathedral, the size of the fabled Hagia Sophia at the least, to bring the Empire closer to the old city. The monk, an old Latin veteran turned holy man, insisted that there were already enough churches across the Empire. He would argue for a monastery, a place of reflection and thought, to be a center of work for the Lord’s grace was nonexistent in Elysium. As the Catholic and Orthodox clergymen began to bicker and argue again, Theophilios was about to turn around and leave, having not even been given a chance to speak due to the argument. Theophilios had grown tired of the fight and was ready to leave, before both the priest and monk looked at each other and came to an agreement. A proposal for the throne, finally putting aside their differences as they worked together. A monastery at the top of a mountain, far away from the vice of the capital, a holy center and a great work of architecture. A new Mount Athos in the New World.

After much more deliberation and investigation with a newly energized clergy, and with the support of a small chapter of Latin monks, a new project was to be proclaimed to the Empire. On the top of Mount Aithaia, to atone for the sins of the empire, the first and greatest monastery in Elysium. Beyond the Apaleisians, the start of a new Mount Athos was about to begin.

Far to the south, oceanic explorers and adventurous pearl divers would discover clams on the shores and lagoons to the south, deep into the Kykladian Isles, and on the distant shores of the faraway lands of Anthiros. The area was far more suitable for the production of silk, already higher in quality than the Skoros silk that existed in the capital, with the production of ‘sea silk’ yielding quality more befitting of royalty. Any attempts to import the claims to the capital have failed due to the colder climate of the north killing off all of the claims that would be moved. Efforts would be made to chart the surrounding area with the intention of establishing an outpost in the region in the distant future.

After weeks of organization, the first wave of builders and clergymen would arrive near the mountains of Aithaia. With a small native presence, the region was largely made up of open wilderness in almost all directions surrounding the mountain. With the architecturally minded focus of Theophilios directing much of the energy of the empire towards the construction of a holy city, it would provide the Emperor a chance to allow his designs to flourish and thrive. A large work camp began to be settled in the surrounding region, laying the future site of a town at the bottom of the mountain as the Empire built its first settlement beyond the mountain.

Efforts for expansion would continue to be focused northward, as explorers and settlers ventured across and settled the surrounding frontier. Incentives would be given to establish colonia around the coastline, extending naval and merchant control further north along the Bay of Methenai. With much of the economy being directed to construction in Aithaia and maintaining a budget for Colonia, little priority was made for open expansion southward for the time being.

Copper would be struck in the area of Detis, close to the Apaleisians and energizing settlers in the region. While not as useful as iron and steel, and emerging from the mines of Detis in vast quantities, the area was prepared for long-term copper refining to ensure continued prosperity in the region.

In along with aiding her husband, Empress Aida possesses both a brilliant mind and an innate curiosity in regards to the way that she would view the world. Both Theophilios and Aida would be well-known for their intellectual brilliance, but Aida would often complement the ideas of her husband with her own theories. Aida would spend most of her life understanding what would make people tick, and how a system came together, studying the texts of scholars, and jotting down her own ideas for the future benefit of the men and women that would come after her.

Aida Orsini, Empress of the Romans and Mother of Elysium (1424-1491)​

Aida was nothing more than a commoner in her old homeland of Sicily, back working as an accountant as a young child in her father’s cloth shop. It was her numbers and calculations that prevented the shop from going afloat in the last couple of years since his premature passing. In Elysium, she was the Empress of Rome, taking the hand of the man she had loved with all of her heart. Now a deeply respected figure within imperial society, and a mother to the future of the imperial house, Aida continued to build a better world for her children and people.

Cultivating strong allies and spending wealth judiciously in order to safeguard the fragile amount of manpower that remained within the Empire, diplomatic efforts would be favored to further the cause of the empire rather than warfare. In the New World, much of the foreign policy that had been dictated by Konstantinos XI would be to court allies and vassals rather than the outright conquest of them, for the Empire was alone in a sea of rival tribes and kingdoms who would not hesitate to hurt the Romans back into the sea. Were it not for Roman Diplomacy and an innate skill at making allies out of foes, the Third Rome would have been far more in jeopardy. Theophilios II knew that fire and steel would only go so far, and wouldn’t forget the lessons he had learned in the new world.

Wine experts across the Empire would become ecstatic with the production of excellent vintage and the high production of wine-producing areas across the Empire, learning of the high satisfaction and superior quality being cultivated in the areas south of the capital. Bottles of Wine would be sold and journey to the distant shores of Vinland and travel along merchants to friendly tribes.

Tensions in the far north between the Markland and Helluland colonies would reach a breaking point, where worsening diplomatic ties among the Norsemen would emerge in a diplomatic incident that escalated into a brutal war over the title to be the true heir of Erikkson. Watching the escalating bloodshed between the two colonies, stories of atrocities on both sides would arrive on the shores of the Elysian Bay as Norse refugees began arriving in the distant towns.

With the bulk of the workers arriving beyond the Apaleisians early, the remainder would reach the site proposed by the clergy. The location would be promising, with abundant water and wood helping aid in the early stages of the project. The site, while not as isolated as Mount Athos was, held its own perks as a crossing point beyond the Apaleisians. Everything else needed to help with the project must be imported from the other side of the mountains.

The first generation of Roman Engineers born in Elysium are put to their first serious test, as the work camp they established at the bottom of the mountain began to evolve into a more permanent settlement with skilled workers to start any serious endeavors. Asking for the Emperor’s help, Theophilios would invest part of the treasury to incentivize people to cross the mountains and move independently under the promise of honest work and good pay.

Knowing that the project was expected to be a serious drain on finances, Theophilios II would lean into taking a loan from the bankers to help finance the construction. With the current growth of the economy, it was expected to take little time to repay the loan, but it would allow Theophilios to dip his toes into the deep waters of the merchant reserves.

In only a year and a half, the conflict between the Norse colonies would finish and result in a clear winner. Markland would triumph over Helluland in multiple decisive yet bloody battles and secure control of the north of the continent. Looking to continue their recovery and establish continuous trade between the Romans and Norsemen, the trade deal would continue to exist with several updated terms and conditions.

Further consolidating the unity of the colonies and integrating the conquered into their domain, the northerners have pressed their ancient right to reorganize and call their nation Vinland, their name for the continent, and have begun to claim the land surrounding them as their own. While trade continued to exist between the Romans and the recently unified Vinland, it would inspire concern among Roman diplomats and government officials, who would view the northern claim for expansion as encompassing and encroaching upon the whole continent.

Theophilios would be within the throne room speaking with an advisor discussing the construction of Mount Aithaia, as the future monastery was to be called, and the financial weight of the amount of resources being allocated to construct the distant holy site. Two envoys from the capital, representing the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would meet with the leader of the Latin Chapter, a familiar monk who had met with the Emperor once before, to discuss the future of the holy mountain. With the relationship between the Latins and the Church having improved slowly during the years, the rites between their churches would remain distinct, even within the new land where everyone and everything seemed to change. The Plethonists had hunted down Catholics and forced them into a corner, where they would work with the Orthodox faithful to keep the throne and the empire under the true faith. When threatened with paganism and annihilation, the differences between their faith seemed small when united under the devotion of the Lord.

It would be to the surprise of the Emperor that the Latin and Orthodox churches would willingly work together and form a new community in Aithalia. In this new Mount Athos, reflection and contemplation would work side by side with philosophy and faith in the new monastery. It was to be the first of many and a small step for a renewed faith that had been baptized by fire during the Plethonist Revolts.

The hopeful positivity of the eventful news would be interrupted as Theophilios would be sought after by the Patriarch himself, who had demanded an immediate audience with him within the Imperial Palace. While grateful for the heavy measures that the throne had taken to support the construction of Mount Aithaia, the Patriarch would say that it wasn't the church that needed to be pleased. It was for the Lord, for the sins and the weight of the Pletonist conflict was far too serious to be simply forgiven.

Before Theophilios could answer, the Patriarch spoke that the Empire as a whole must work together to prove their repentance. The Monastery of Mount Aithaia would need to be built soon or the Empire would suffer under the weight of its own sins. Theophilios II contemplated the Patriarch's deadline before pushing ahead with construction, receiving the full backing of both the Orthodox and Latin Church and their expectations that the monastery was to be finished within a generation. Many other projects would see their funding and construction delayed as much of the treasury was focused solely on what was to become a defining landmark within Elysium.

With the faithful expectations to see it through, Theophilos II would make a promise to himself and the church to do what he must for the Empire’s spiritual redemption for the sins it had committed. With the support it needed, Mount Aithaia remained the largest priority of any architectural and economic development within the Empire for the years to come.

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That naphtha trade deal should be useful.

It looks like the Church is consolidating power. I wonder how if the dynatoi might become resentful of this arrangement.

Congrats on expanding Elysia's territory.

When do you plan to make contact with the Old World again (I think I made contact around 1500, but I also think that was a decision)?

Also, that last sentence of the In Memoriam brings up another question... who was left behind to manage the old Church? The Patriarch was part of the Odyssey, right? How did the Orthodox adherents choose his replacement back in Europe?

Thanks! I think the Old World is going to be in for quite a shock. I believe the Orthodox adherents back in Europe would select a successor, or when it became apparent that the Byzantines weren't coming back from their 'expedition', the church would select a new Patriarch. The rediscovery of the Old World is set to occur within a couple of years' time. I think readers are going to be in for a surprise

There should really be some sort of malus on colonization in the early decades since you can't get new recruits from the metropole... you've expanded so much in one generation, that there must have been at least 8000 people on that fleet?

Scrap Constantinople for every last bit of wood and use it to build a armada to sail into the nothing with nothing but faith that the Lord will protect you

The population of Constantinople in 1453 was believed to be about 50,000, and it is mentioned that “most” of the city left with the fleet. Given that they picked up even more people from the Peloponnese and Sicily, it’s reasonable to assume that the initial population of Elysia is about 40,000-50,000. Couple this with the fact that historically, initial populations in the early Thirteen Colonies doubled roughly every 25-30 years from natural increase due to abundant land and less disease compared to Europe, and one can assume a population of nearly 100,000, minus however many died in the Religious Wars, by the time of Konstantinos’s death.

Now if anyone would like to explain to me how the ever-loving hell the Byzantines got almost 50,000 men, women, and children across the Atlantic Ocean in one go, when it took the Ottomans about 400 ships to land and supply a similar-sized army in their 1522 Siege of Rhodes despite being 30 miles from their territory I’d love to hear it…

Constantinople was deconstructed and most of the city was taken within the fleet. Only the sick, elderly, and stubborn would be left behind. Even then, not everyone would have been taken. It would be too difficult to make population estimates, so I'm not even gonna try. But there is enough for a stable population during the odyssey to survive in the New World. Given how abundant the land of the Americas was, and how the disease wasn't as big of a factor, the population of Elysium right now is probably close to if not around 30,000 by 1475. Most of which is in Nea Konstantinopolis, and with plenty of land already, there's always room for growth

Again, this is a Third Odyssey. So take what you can with a pinch of salt

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 10: The New Spartans (1475-1480)​

The beginnings of an eventful reign from Theophilios had already come to bear fruit, having already succeeded in carrying on the legacy of Konstantinos in securing his hold onto the realm he would inherit. Long having remained an important part of imperial society through his direct and indirect influence and contributions to the Empire, Theophilios’s ascension to the throne would carry a weight on his shoulders that he would be forced to carry. It would be through him that the character and destiny of the Romans upon Elysium would truly start to take shape both as a people and as an inheritor of a legacy that had existed for thousands of years.

The torch of Roman Civilization would be held in one hand, and in the other, Theophilios held a hammer. The Emperor and his wife would craft his wonders one step at a time with the backing of a reinvigorated government as the last remaining embers of the Plethonist Revolt would whither and fade away. It was a time to rebuild what was lost and to atone for the sins of its past life.

Pushing as many resources as possible towards the groundwork for the monastery, an area that had once been empty wilderness among the mountains would rapidly begin to take shape. The land would begin to change as the first major settlement beyond the Apaleisians would be constructed in the form of a work camp to house the rapidly increasing number of laborers at the bottom of the mountain. People and investments would flood into the province in search of opportunity, gold, and prestige for themselves under the promise of good work and honest pay.

As a path towards the peak of the summit would be mapped and constructed, followed by the raw resources and hard labor needed to move it towards the top of the mountain, the bottom of the mountain would have the work camp form the basis of a small but important village. Workers would bring their families across the Apaleisians to settle down along the frontier, constructing wooden homes and basic infrastructure for a small town. Theophilios II would repurpose much of the imperial economy solely towards the financing of the monastery, which was to be named after his relative St Ioannes. The economy would be directed towards establishing further colonia along the coastline and the monastery itself, all other matters would see its funding slashed in many aspects, causing worry among many for the ‘reckless’ spending of the imperial government's priority on the monastery.

With such an investment in the Monastery, the dynatoi would begin to raise their concerns to the Emperor over the exposure of the site itself. While the construction of the St Ioannes Monastery along the summit of Mount Aithaia would progress rapidly, the region itself had no defensive aspects to protect it from a potential barbaroi incursion into the site itself. With such an important amount of resources being directed onto its construction, and how the site would lie on the other side of the mountains with no means to protect it, a nobleman would suggest to the Emperor about repurposing some materials and workers to construct a local fort to provide security to the workers and the project’s progress.

The Emperor would take the suggestion with open enthusiasm. The Knights would raise similar concerns only several days earlier to the Emperor during a meeting with the order’s grandmaster. It would be decided that some resources would be redirected and repurposed to the construction of a formidable fort to protect the region and the monastery and that a detachment of Knights would establish a small garrison there. The Knights of Saint Ioannes, once known as the Knights Hospitaller, would send fifty of its faithful to protect the region from any harm. The Monastery and Mount Aithaia would be protected by warriors worthy of their holy duty. While slowing down construction due to resources being redirected away from the site, the future benefits would prove to be immeasurable.

With much of the framework organized for the monastery, a stroke of good fortune would be discovered after Roman engineers discovered advanced techniques of construction in the archives and treatises that had been taken from Old Konstantinopolis. Ancient knowledge of the techniques of their forefathers and lessons learned from antiquity would greatly benefit the engineers as the more complicated stages of the project would be reached. Only a severe lack of copies of such knowledge would limit its access without any other alternatives, leaving engineers inspired to pursue their interest in further study.

With the ancient knowledge of their forefathers and the local expertise of the Roman engineers, Mount Aithaia would come to serve as a beautiful product of where both the old and the new world would come together in harmony. Such a cultural rebirth upon Elysium would see the earliest fragmentation of the identity of the New World and the direction that the Romans would take.

Within Nea Konstantinopolis, the Emperor would come to speak before a distant cousin of the Imperial House who sought the attention of Theophilios personally. Belisarios Palaiologos, one of the oldest of the princes that would be born on Elysium, had recently come of age and had proved himself. Named after the ancient general, Belisarios had lived up to his namesake and had earned a reputation as a brilliant leader and a fierce tactician. Within the Imperial Palace, Belisarios was known as the best swordsman within its walls and often challenged far more experienced opponents and completely dominated them. Fascinated with the ancient history of Hellas, Belisarios would develop a fixation that would never leave him around the Spartans. In his mind, his heavy Laconophilia developed from a fascination into a deep idealization of the ancient culture as he grew older, believing in Sparta as the blueprint of an ideal state or example that should be followed by the wider Empire.

Rapidly building up his political influence despite his young age of a man in his early 20’s, Beliarios had recently spent much of his influence in the selective recruitment of men to serve in his large personal retinue. His minor status in court had kept the retinue from growing too large and preventing a potential threat to the throne from gaining strength. In recent months, Belisarios would train his personal retinue day and night in a brutal training regime with an emphasis on discipline and strength, into some of the most capable warriors on the entire continent.

Theophilios II would come with a meeting with his distant relative before the Imperial Court, where Beliarios would make his intentions clear. Coming before the council and the emperor directly, Prince Belisarios had come to seek support in an expedition to the lands beyond the Kykladies. Rumors among the Barbaroi along the south had spoken of rumors of cities made from solid gold ruled by malevolent gods. Ceaseless training and investment into his personal retinue would only further push Belisarios towards the Emperor, where even if not directly said, the Prince intended to leave wherever or not he receives imperial backing.

The Landing on the Yucatan. With thousands of followers, both native and Roman, Belisarios would declare the foundation of Lakonia. It would be here that his own identity, and that of the entire region, would be forever changed.

Theophilios would develop an interest in Belisarios’s expedition to the south, learning about the distant rumors of the far south from rumors and reports from vague exploration within the area depicting the natives of the region. A Roman presence within the region would prove to be of great benefit to the imperial government, where securing Belisarios’s loyalty would remain important should the expedition be successful. Theophilios II would send his distant relative some additional supplies, sending extra manpower and resources to the prince. Belisarios would remain in the Emperor’s debt and was extremely grateful for such generosity, solidifying his loyalty to the throne.

Belisarios’s expedition would prove to be extremely successful in the distant south, establishing a new settlement in the jungle of the area. Belisarios would quickly cement his position through the rapid conquest of the surrounding area of the city with his army, seizing the coast and building a new center. Shortly after his arrival, Belisarios would establish a ‘New Sparta’ after the ancient city of legend and pave the foundation of a new realm.

Belisarios would shed his remaining Roman ties and renamed himself Leonidas, seeking to mimic the hero of antiquity to conquer the Barbaroi there against all odds. Already an incredibly capable commander and with the strong support of his army, along with the few natives that remained in their custody, the newly rechristened Leonidas declared the foundation of Spartakon. His ambition for conquest against the brutal barbaroi would only be matched by his drive to establish his new homeland in what he would call Lakonia.

Leonidas I Spartakon (1453-1516). Perhaps the finest military genius of his age, his legendary conquest of Lakonia would be studied by future generations.​

Envisioning himself a new Lycurgus and Leonidas, Leonidas would symbolically cut direct ties to the Romans and would pursue independence. Hoping to strive to conquer the region alone, Theophilios would receive emissaries from the new kingdom in the far south, who would remain friendly to the Romans despite such vast distances. A treaty would be signed preventing the two nations from interfering in each other's politics for fifty years, along with a symbolic alliance between Nea Konstantinopolis and Lakonia. Theophilios would wish for the success of the distant kingdom and its friendship.

Long having been established on Elysium for several decades, the Orthodox Church remained prone to the bickering and corruption that had come to follow it from the old world. Isolated from the rest of Christendom, these problems would only magnify the issues within the church itself. Theophilios would begin to push through ecclesiarchial reforms to reform the church as a whole, slowly starting to reign in the more corrupt priests and restoring the people’s faith in the holy church as a whole.

With the start of the religious reforms, it would be the start of a transformation of the church in the New World. Religious authority would begin to change in the years following the Plethonist Revolts, and the nature of Orthodoxy and its position in the New World would begin debates among the bishops and priests. It would be the start of a unique reformation of orthodoxy in the New World, one that would last for many years, and further the cultural and religious divide between the Old World and the New World.

Several years following the start of its construction, Mount Aithaia’s rapid transformation would become openly visible to the influx of workers and settlers that had crossed the Apaleisians. Once nothing more then a cabin, the new town of Aipeia at the bottom of the mountain was a bustling and unexpected hub of commerce. Materials and workers from every corner of the Empire would arrive in the region to begin anew, sending resources and construction upon the mountains. With much of the framework completed, the St Ioannes Monastery was largely completed. It would take several more years of heavy investment and construction to transform the monastery into the new Mount Athos that it was destined to be.

Between the bustling town of Aipeia and the construction of Mount Aithaia, a group of powerful merchants would arrive before the Emperor, claiming to represent a significant portion of the Arte dei Delfini and other mercantile groups within the Empire. The group would make a considerable splash upon their arrival in the Imperial Palace, coming to protect their interests across the trade routes. Theophilios II knew that the merchants wouldn’t have requested a meeting with him had it not been for a significant matter.

The merchants would speak to the Emperor about the role that the merchants had during the construction of Mount Aithaia, not seeking a simple regulation or extra tax that would only serve to boost their riches further. The three merchants controlled almost all of the caravans going through the Apaleisians, which had made their contribution vital to the whole process of construction. It wouldn’t prove to be enough for them. Forced to work under the constraints of imperial orders and tariffs, the conditions among the merchants worsened.

With such a heavy focus on the empire’s finances, the merchants would argue that Aipeia was the first settlement beyond the Apaleisians, and as such was an important center of commerce. With the constraints of imperial tariffs and constrained resources that were being allocated to too many aspects of the project, the merchants demanded to impose their prices and open participation to those outside of the throne’s court and proximity, allowing the mercantile guilds and the Arte dei Delfini access for contribution onto the project without any legal restrictions. Rejection would result in the merchants pulling their support for Mount Aithaia, throwing the progress of the project down the drain and setting its construction back several years.

Theophilios would remain worried about such a demand, knowing the outside interference would upset the church. Constrained resources would become a problem, and even with such an influx and demand of material and workers from every corner of the empire, its allocation and logistical issues would stretch the allocated resources to their limit. Begrudgingly, the Emperor would accept the offer for the empire’s merchants to become the resource providers in Mount Aithaia. The clergy would become upset at this decision, viewing Theophilios as abandoning the monastery to greed, but the merchant providers for the project would greatly help in aiding the project. Thrilled with this decision, the merchants would provide everything in abundance for the project while building upon the growing town of Aipeia.

With new policies to encourage exploration of the world around them, some explorers would report spotting a small island in the Great Sea in a seemingly futile quest eastwards towards the old world. Such news would encourage explorers and sailors to explore further east, to no avail, in a lonely ocean. One of these exploration vessels would return back to Nea Konstantinopolis with groundbreaking news of a discovery, rushing back to the imperial capital to eagerly report their findings.

The ship's captain would quickly get in contact with the Emperor and the Imperial Council with familiar-looking people on an island in the Atlantic. From distant surveillance, the familiar-looking people belonged to a great expedition and were stranded after a strong storm. With everyone in the Empire knowing the stories of their past, the discovery of the island would confirm the shocking discovery that the lost fleet were the same ships that had been a part of the Grand Fleet during the Odyssey. Excitement rapidly spread across every corner of the Empire and efforts to establish contact with them would begin almost immediately. Theophilios II would personally embark on the journey to meet with the shipwrecked survivors, taking a ship and leaving on a small journey across the ocean once more.

Within a short amount of time, several large ships would arrive on the island to establish contact with the people of Lanthanopolis, the inhabitants of the ‘Stranded City’, around the lagoons of the island. Theophilios II would be met with great joy, and some of the oldest inhabitants of the island would remember the prince fondly during the Odyssey and the struggles that came along with the exodus. Despite their joy, most of the populace appeared somewhat malnourished but remained in good spirits, and had done well for themselves to build a new life.

With a small economy based around whatever the island provided, Lanthanopolis had developed a strong maritime culture. Its people had come to invite the Emperor to join in a meager feast they had prepared. Theophilios II would bring food and supplies from the mainland to the island as a gift to help aid them, where the local populace rejoiced loudly. Pleasantries would be shared and the inhabitants of Lanthanopolis would become impressed at how the Empire had fared. Before the end of the night, its people would shout Theophilios’s name and want to reunite with their lost brothers and sisters.

Theophilios II would laugh and accept the lost people with open arms, embracing them once more in brotherhood and reuniting the legacy of the Grand Fleet once more. Lanthanopolis would unite with the Empire as a distant vassal state, where the island of Mikra Krete would happily embrace becoming a part of the Romans once more. Once the Emperor returned home, the island would see an abundance of supplies in the form of food and clothing, along with everything that the island lacked as the beginning of trade would be established. Forever earning their gratitude, Lanthanopolis would be welcomed home.

With the growing professionalism in the Imperial Army with an emphasis on expert training and discipline, the foundation for the future of the army would be codified into imperial law by militarists and the upper echelon of the government. With a blank slate to pursue reforms in the new world and seeking to aspire to the success of the Legions and Tagma of old, the Roman soldiers would receive training comparable to their forefathers. Along with an aristocratic center of noble generals, the small but elite standing army was slowly becoming the greatest fighting force in the entire new world.

In the latter half of the decade, Orhan Celebi passed away from an illness contracted in the field. The Prinkipes, the Roman Jannisaries of the New World, would mourn the loss of their founding father along with Theophilios. Theophilios II would mourn the loss of a close friend and ally of the imperial court, saying their final farewell to the commander that done much to ensure to the survival of the Empire.

Orhan would be buried in a small Islamic funeral, organized by the few surviving Muslim warriors that had accompanied him during the Odyssey. His grave would be pointed eastward towards the old world and the sands of Arabia, where his funeral would be attended by Theophillios II and many of the imperial generals out of a sign of respect. Loyal to the Romans to the very end, Orhan’s death would leave the tiny Islamic community within Elysium in a period of mourning for weeks. Many of Orhan’s loyal followers would form the basis of a unique Greco-Turkish subculture, where many of their descendants would play an important role in centuries to come.

Expansion outward would continue at an organized methodical pace, with colonia outward along the coastline remaining one of the few organized priorities of the imperial government’s efforts. With much of the treasury focused on the construction of Mount Aithaia and expansion, many architectural efforts and other economic matters would be slowed down. Despite the brief change of pace, the economy of the empire was thriving with a growing population that was recovering to pre-revolt levels and growing opportunities within the New World.

In 1477, Greek merchants established a trading post on the western shore of an island that the local Lenepe would name Manhattan. Settlers would begin arriving within the surrounding harbor shortly after, where the area quickly became a commercial center as trade goods such as fur and fish were set up as primary industries of the harbor.

Thirty years since the arrival of the Romans in the New World, what had once been native lands would see Greek become both the dominant cultural and demographic majority within the thriving lands of the Empire. Assimilated natives would gradually start losing their way to the process of Hellenisation within the region, which would remain remarkably successful, as both Christianity and the dominance of the language would spread outward from Elysian Bay. The Barbaroi Councils would come together to retain many methods and cultural means to preserve their heritage, ensuring that it would pass on to the next generation.

In spite of this, the European population of the Empire was increasing at a rapid rate. A nation that had been devastated by the Plethonist Revolts would slowly begin to recover, and by the late 1470’s had recovered to pre-revolt levels of prosperity. Most settlements would be created and settled by complete family groups, with several generations often being present and established within the town. Many of the families would own the land they would live and farm on, while the dynatoi would retain a monopoly on prime land for their estates and businesses. Greek would be a universal language within the colonies, while Latin merchants and settlers would speak some dialect of Greek within their communities.

Roman settlements would be made up of skilled craftsmen and tradesmen. Farmers would play an important role in small communities, while shipbuilding, commerce, and fisheries would play an enormous role in coastal towns. A healthy climate and an abundant food supply, along with the rapid growth of the frontier settlements, would see the birth rate of the colonies skyrocket. Nea Konstantinopolis and Prosphorion, the two largest cities in the Empire, would have a healthy population of over ten thousand by 1480.

With the construction of Mount Aithaia largely completed, the Empire would begin to wind back much of the economy back from the financial focus of the project and outward into the wider world once more. With the mercantile factions happy with providing resources for the project, and making a fortune from doing so, another one of the most important groups within the Empire would approach the Emperor to make a deal with the crown. The Dynatoi, the aristocratic elite of the nation, would make their move.

Some of it’s most influential and important members would approach the throne, making another similar deal to Theophilios II about their own contribution to the project. Even with such an investment from the width of the empire, specialized resources and building materials remained scarce. The dynatoi would make a deal before the empire that the project may be able to increase the supply of needed goods if they could relocate into the wider province itself, or ‘reinvest’ portions of their own fabulous wealth onto the newly claimed lands, estates and fiefs. The dynatoi would promise mood food for the workers, wood and minerals for the laborers, and gold for the crown to invest into the project and whatever future aspirations that lay before the Emperor. The only thing missing was how the dynatoi would promise this contribution or how they would even acquire it.

In theory, it would mean that more materials would be able to be used in contribution for Mount Aithaia. But in reality, the dynatoi were seeking to attain fewer taxes and more autonomy from the Emperor. Already stretched thin beyond the capital and other major cities, the respect for the rule of law was already on thin ice. Theophilios would grant the autonomy that the dynatoi sought, only in return for a direct contribution to the project instead of the empire’s treasury. Taxes would be lowered to increase the thrones budget for the project, while the dynatoi would push for rural governance of the region around the mountain.

Putting aside sacrifices for the betterment of the realm, Theophillios would worry that he had already given away far too much for the various elements within the nation, afraid that having granted too much autonomy and free onto the project would dilute the result and purpose of the monastery in the first place. With progression continuing at a steady pace, the Emperor turned away from the monastery and looked out into the open world around him. A fresh perspective or a new breath of air could be enough to allow him to focus on the wider picture.

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Oh you’ve done it now. For those unfamiliar with this particular mod, the Mount Aithaia project not only costs quite a lot of money to build each stage, but because you have a time crunch, you need to expedite construction considerably, and as the costs to expedite the great work aren’t changed from vanilla and there’s no way you can get a 10k manpower pool easily right now, that’s another couple thousand ducats sunk into 250 ducat chunks for 730 days off.

It absolutely can be done by 1500; I did it and I hadn’t even taken the silk, but you’re going to need to pull every trick in the book from borrowing from the merchants and refinancing every so often as the size of the loans goes up, selling crown land, devaluing currency, milking the native tribes for their money, trading favors for gold from your allies, and even sacking base tax development to get the money needed.

To not spoil anything, I do think what you get at the end makes it worth it. It certainly played a big part in helping me avoid the bankruptcy almost caused by building it!

Patience is not a virtue here...

If you throw enough money at something, results are sure to occur....right?

This was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon. One of my favorite AAR writers back from the dead with one of my favorite mods. Can't wait to see if the Empire makes God's deadline.

Thank you! Glad to see you along for the ride again!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Interlude III: The Last Plethonists (1479)​

It was a public ceremony, one that Lukas had been familiar with all too many times beforehand as he put on his priestly garb. Not an ounce of emotion was on his face as he adjusted his vestment and braced his nerves. Even after performing it so many times, public speaking on this scale was never much of a strength for the priest. Internally he felt that this responsibility could have befallen another one of the faithful priests within the church to conduct such a morbid ceremony, but it was his responsibility to see that the apostates received divine judgment for what they had done. Thousands of years of Roman civilization almost being erased from the world due to the ramblings of a mad preacher and his pagan followers.

Almost twenty years ago, the Plethonists were finally put down like the rabid dogs they were. It had also been since then that Lukas had found his calling to act in service of the holy father and his church, ever since his life had been saved from the Inquisition when he was a young boy during the height of the revolt. Ever since the Plethonists largely went into hiding since the end of the revolts, the Inquisition had done its divine duty to hunt them down. Lukas couldn’t find the bravery that the Inquisition had in their line of duty, he wasn’t a violent man, but he did find solace in his heart that he was the one that would condemn them to hell.

The crowd outside would begin chanting at the sinners on the stage, where imperial soldiers would barely hold back the righteous anger of the mob that screamed with their hearts and souls to the condemned pagans. Four men were sentenced to die today under his orders. The crowd almost seemed to encompass the width of the public square where the executions were taking place. Lukas would look at the faithful within the church in the distance, many of the men were high-ranking bishops or priests who looked at him as he walked to the center of the stage to speak. The crowd would begin to fall silent as Lukas readied himself to speak, his eyes observing the large crowd and reading their emotions.

“Romans, we have emerged victorious. Evil has once more been defeated. Before you are the remaining Plethonists still within Nea Konstantinopolis. With this act of purification, our city will finally be rid of the monsters that had sought to destroy us.” Lukas spoke loudly to the delight of the crowd, who would erupt into loud cheers at each word that he spoke. Several angry faces turned to look at the pagans on the stage, looking utterly defeated.

“These pagans, who had brought pain and suffering to our city and our empire, will be struck down. Christ has triumphed and delivered justice against these wicked souls.” Lukas continued to speak. The crowd would loudly jeer at the pagans, screaming for their cowardice and their death. “We must be ready to punish these Plethonist pigs wherever we find them. We will always be ready to defend our faith in the lord!”

The crowd would loudly begin to cheer once more. Lukas performed the sign of the cross, along with the other priests who would quickly follow suit. He turned around and went to sit down before listening to an inquisitor read the crimes of the sentenced to the crowd. Four different men would die, all of whom had committed various crimes, forever linked with one another for being Plethonists. Lukas would listen to the crimes and recoiled in his seat out of disgust. Two of them men had hidden their true faith as crypto-plethonists until ultimately being discovered.

The oldest of them, a grey-haired man, was discovered living in the wilderness and had been captured by natives. The youngest of the men, a malnourished young man who could have been no more than thirty, had burned down a church during the height of the revolts when he was just a ten-year-old boy, burning alive all of the frightened innocent worshippers inside. All four of them were to be burned at the stake. If they repented of their sins, they could have been granted the mercy of being strangled. Lukas knew that none of them would ever repent, and he wasn’t interested in granting them mercy. If the Plethonists were not going to grant the church and the Romans any mercy, why should the Empire act mercifully in kind?

Lukas would follow the condemned as they were escorted to their death from a distance, watching as the crowd threw rotten food, filth, and other things at them, spitting and throwing dirt at the Plethonists who were paraded through the streets. Some of them would get close and try and pull hair at them before being thrown back by an imperial soldier. The luckiest one would club one of the condemned with a rock against his skull, causing immense pain as the blood drained down his face and over his eyes before he would be thrown back.

The Priest watched from a balcony as the Plethonists were stripped half-naked and forced to walk upstairs as Inquisitors worked in tandem with executioners. One of the Plethonists tried to flee before being caught by the zealous mob and thrown back to the inquisitions, who restrained him and forced him to walk bare foot to the pole. One of the Plethonists would repent for his sins out of the corner of his eye and would be strangled, completely lifeless, to be put out of his misery before the flames overtook him. Bloodcurdling screams would only barely drown out the fury of the crowd who watched as the other two men would be burned alive, their skin glowing red as the flames crept beyond their stomachs and grew higher and higher.

Lukas kept his eyes on the young man, watching as the murderer who had once been a young boy look in horror at the torches being lit. He watched the terror in his eyes at seeing the other two Plethonists burn alive and writhe in agony, the grim reality settling in as executioners ignited the pyre beneath his feet. A smile of satisfaction crept onto his face as the flames quickly burned the soles of his feet and rapidly overwhelmed him. His agonized screams were a cacophony of hatred that fueled his resolve and that of the Inquisition.

The flames would burn the restraints away as the young plethonists tried to climb to the top of the pillar to escape the flames that only grew higher, his terrified face causing the crowd to mock and jeer at the pagan that had fruitlessly tried to escape punishment. It had proven fruitless as it had trapped him on the top of the pillar, where flames licked against his burning body and climbed rapidly to burn against his flesh. The plethonists hair would ignite and his face started to peel away, watching as the worst Plethonist was burned alive. It would all prove too much and the Plethonist would leap from the stake, falling to his death on the hard ground below and quickly dying from his wounds as his body was slowly and painfully incinerated from the intense heat.

Lukas would only smile and clutch a hand against his heart before leaving. He remembered the Plethonists who had murdered his family. Their souls had finally been put to rest as the last of them within the capital had finally been dealt with. The last vestiges of the dying cred were slowly being bled out from existence, either from its surviving heathens dying from old age or being hunted into extinction. Deep down he knew that the Plethonists wouldn’t ever truly go away, but in his heart, he was glad, for he knew as long as they existed in secret they served to give the Priest a purpose in life.

And he was happy.

​

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 11: The Council of Odessos (1480-1487)​

Years had passed since the scourge of the Plethonist Revolts had left its deepest scars upon the empire, yet time had healed many of the wounds that the pagan threat had sought to harm against the Romans. Much of the population would begin to exceed pre-revolt levels, while the economic opportunities left from the ‘blank slate’ that had been created from the crisis would allow the economy to surge far beyond levels it had ever anticipated in growth. Enormous swaths of coastal settlements would be focused on the exterior for Colonia to be established, while many agricultural and productive work settlements would dot the landscape around the interior that hugged the Apaleisians. With a favorable climate, an abundance of food and wealth, and a skyrocketing birth rate, the Empire would finally shake away the last vestiges of the religious war that almost tore it completely asunder.

Emperor Theophilios II, after over a decade on the Imperial Throne, would earn a great amount of popularity from his subjects for his beneficial guidance and sometimes direct hand in guiding imperial affairs. Beloved for the enrichment of the empire as a whole, the fruits of success that had been planted by Konstantinos XI would bloom under his successor's reign. It would be during the 1480’s that Theophilios II would come to make a true name for himself under the ‘Golden Years’ of his reign.

The Tuscarora, after enjoying a degree of autonomy as a vassal to the empire, would be integrated without resistance into the wider dominion of the Empire. Brought into the fold following the Battle of Skarureh, the isolated Tuscarora would become staunch vassals and allies of the empire following the loss of their independence. Roman diplomats would placate the natives and mend broken relationships, and over time, the allure of integration into the Empire would become irresistible to the partially Hellenified elites.

The Eastern Roman Empire in 1480.

With the annexation of the tribe into the wider expanse of the realm, the southern frontierlands would begin to open up to settlers and merchants seeking to build a better life. Vast territories between the Elysian Coast and the Apaleisians would stretch until the southernmost expanse and contact with the tribes to the south. The Powhatan would encounter the Romans once more, where the sophisticated equipment and wealth that the Romans had gifted them decades earlier would see them craft a small but powerful native power in the region.

Long having established a presence within the capital and the region, Vinlandic warriors under imperial employ would earn a fierce reputation for themselves as powerful fearless warriors who helped aid the empire achieve victory on the battlefield. In the capital, the Northmen would gain considerable influence with the Emperor. Konstantinos XI would establish the Varangian Guard to serve as his bodyguard, much like the Varangians of old, something which had continued for years

Konstantinos’s affinity to foreign elements of the empire, from his guidance and foundation of the Barbaroi Councils and friendship to the previous Vinlandic realm of Markland would cause a stir among the dynatoi of the capital in recent times, where his successor Theophilios II would be worried that the barbarian foreigners were far too close to the ear of the Emperor and was easily swayed.

The concerns of the Dynatoi, whether validated or not, would quickly be diminished as Theophilios II worked to correct their influence. Varangian influence, if left unchecked, would become a worry among the upper echelons of power. As the nation would grow in size, so would the borders and forces of the Empire be stretched thinner and thinner. Advised by the most prominent members of his influential Varangian Guard, the Emperor would grant autonomy to the order and granted the Christianised Vinlanders their own semi-autonomous fiefdom within the Empire as an imperial subject.

The Varangian Order would grant the Varangians their own home within the Empire, ensuring the safety of the order while imperial forces would be freed to tend to other border regions. In addition to being given their own piece of the frontier, the Order would retain its mission of serving the Romans and be given freedom to develop their new lands.

The Varangians would become immensely grateful for Theophilios II and settle within the region, earning the Emperor a far higher standing among his already loyal foreign bodyguard. The decision to grant the foreigners their piece of the Empire would lower the Emperor’s popularity among the estates of the Empire, upsetting the dynatoi who felt that the decision to grant the Order a homeland was unnecessary and that the lands were better put to use to Greek settlers. The Clergy would see the pragmatism of allowing the Christinised Vinlanders to establish their home in the area, but some would feel uncomfortable that the Emperor would ‘placate’ far too much to foreign elements within the Empire already.

Finances for the construction of Mount Aithia would begin to run low, even with the stabilization of the economy and its current period of growth. Feeling that progress on the project had not satisfied the clergy and the crown in its pursuit to construct a new Mount Athos in the new world, the Emperor would push the burghers to seek a loan for additional finances from the bankers to purchase more raw supplies that a limited budget simply couldn’t afford. It would push the crown’s finances into the mercy of the merchants, but it was a sacrifice that was worthy of divine salvation of the Empire’s soul as a whole.

Distant contact with the Powhatan in the decades past would strike a cord of shared history, as contact with the tribe would spark a swing of attitude among the tribes. Even following the Accord between the Empire and the Powhatan, and a shared bit brief period of unity, the empire would unfortunately fail in its diplomacy with the barbaroi. Armed with old steel, the Powhatan behaved with hostility against the Romans whom they would see as an encroaching menace. The elders, having learned from their ‘mistakes’, would refuse the Romans outright. They had once left their homes to them, and they would never let the pale men from the north it again while they drew breath.

While efforts to engage and build an old alliance with the Powhatan failed, missionary efforts would passively see members of the Powhatan adopt Christianity. Many of the Powhatan remembered their history with the Romans and didn’t share the same attitude that their elders did. Many members of the tribe would abandon their forefather's faith and begin to convert in droves, leaving their homeland and settling near Elysium Bay, much to the anger of the traditionalist fury of the rest of the tribe. The Empire accepted their new native brothers in faith, accepting them despite leaving a permanent rift between the Powhatan and Romans.

Little reports would come to emerge from the distant lands of Lakonia, but whatever information comes from the lands to the far south would be stories of conquest and fantasy. Some of these stories would be exaggerated by fishermen and merchants who had returned from trading ships, which would begin filtering into the southern ports. It would be difficult to tell which stories ranged from fact or fiction, but through it all, a concrete truth would emerge that the expedition to the south had been a wild success.

Leonidas I and his warrior realm of Spartakon would see bewildering success on the field of battle, forging a state from blood and iron. Diplomats would arrive to serve as an emissary between the two kingdoms while cultivating favors and closer relations. Even if the prince once known as Belisarios Paleilogous wouldn't want to openly admit it to his new subjects, their entire existence would be owed to Theophilios’s goodwill. It was something that the Spartans of the South would never forget, no matter how vast the distance was between the two.

Almost forty years would pass since the Romans established themselves in the New World of Elysium, and through its trials and tribulations, the Empire would establish itself as a successful yet isolated kingdom on the new frontier of an entirely new homeland. Only the oldest greybeards would remember a time when Palia Konstantinopolis would be under the hold of the empire. It had been a bleak time when every inhabitant of the doomed city silently knew that the end was near. Through leaving the old world, much of its culture had survived. Orthodoxy would arrive upon the new shores of Elysium, and ever since the first landing, had remained almost virtually unchanged. As the culture of the Empire would change upon the new world, the effort would be needed for its faith to be changed along with it.

To strengthen its faith in the new world, the Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would officially call for an Ecumenical Council, the first of its kind since the Roman arrival in Elysium. Every Orthodox bishop would be invited to the grand capital where the council was to be held. Romans, Cretans and Converted Natives would all come together in unison to stand as one and debate in its grand cathedrals on how to best reform Orthodoxy to better function in the New World.

Theological debates would last for days before a smaller and more finalized council would occur within Odessos that would last for several weeks more. The nature of the Holy Spirit and Saint Mary would rage for days, while the importance of the patriarchs and theology would stretch even further. Once an agreement is reached, Christendom would be forever changed as a new branch of the church would be born. Elysian Orthodoxy, independent from the wider world of Christendom across the sea, would emerge as an energized and invigorated church. Almost universally supported as an autocephalous church of Orthodoxy, the faith would begin to take a new shape of its own that would alter greatly from the Old World. The religious split between the Old and New World was complete, and between the ocean that separated from them, the Romans of Elysium had found their new spiritual identity.

With a reinvigorated drive, missionary efforts would be greatly increased as the Elysian Orthodox faith would begin to spread outward from imperial influence. Missionaries would begin to preach within the lands of the Haudenosaunee to great success, spreading the gospel in the lands of the Empire’s native ally. They would see the most success in the lands of the Onondaga, the leaders of the Confederacy, igniting the torch of mass conversion to Christianity within the tribe. Hoping to lead the other tribes as an example, the religious awakening within the mass conversion would be celebrated as a major accomplishment.

With an almost unimpeded growth around its new homeland, decades of isolation from the old world would come to an end with the discovery and later arrival of a small fleet of Portuguese ships arriving off the shores of Elysium. Anchoring off the coast of Troizen, their arrival would signal the first European contact with the Romans in nearly forty years. The Portuguese would come prepared, sending a group of emissaries, several of whom would speak Greek. While Europe had given up on finding out about the fate of the Greeks that had supposedly fallen to their demise, the Portuguese had used the knowledge that had been given to them during the Odyssey to send secret expeditions westward in search of the lost fleet of the Romans.

After decades of expeditions, the first contact between the two different worlds would be made. This would immediately gain imperial attention on the matter, especially from Theophilios II, who was upon the Grand Fleet when the original deal with the Portuguese had been made all those years ago. The Portuguese would offer the Emperor with a unique proposition. In exchange for exclusive access to the exotic trade goods within the market, the Portuguese would introduce the Empire to new technological advances from Europe. Portugal desired a monopoly on trade goods from the new world, while the Empire would catch-up and modernize to new standards of the old world.

Theophilios II would be quick to move onto the idea, establishing a Portuguese enclave isolated from the rest of the Roman citizens in an undeveloped area around the coastline within proximity to Elysian Bay. Some within the court remained fearful of the foreign influence and the fear that the Europeans would bring onto imperial ambition, but the benefits would far outweigh any of the negatives.

The Treaty of Troizen would be signed between the Greeks and Portuguese when more permanent contact would be made in the coming months. Signed as a beneficial trade deal, the treaty would carry diplomatic weight for future treaties between the Empire and the Old World. As long as the treaty would remain in place, the Empire would be unable to engage in direct contact with the Portuguese. The trade deal would also serve as an enormous boon for the economies of both nations but would carry enormous diplomatic weight in the years to come, upon which the Empire would see its greatest benefits in the long term..

Portugal would see the greatest direct benefit, having earned an ally across the ocean while gaining a monopoly on New World trade leaving Elysium. Already holding power as a sizeable economic power within European trade, Portugal would become fabulously wealthy from the Treaty of Triozen. Lisbon would become the sole port in Europe where all New World trade would arrive, where wondrous and alien items were brought back across the ocean. Citizens were enriched while the Portuguese crown was completely drowning in the enormous wealth had attained. Merchants thrived within the new economic climate, while the King of Portugal would become wealthier than any of his European counterparts. Maintaining this wealth would become a state secret that must be preserved as long as possible before European curiosity about Portuguese success would eventually lead to Portugal's rivals to encounter the new world.

The treaty was to become the start of a new period of history between both nations. Roman goods and wealth would serve as the fuel to ignite the Portuguese Golden Age, and both had everything to gain and nothing to lose. A friendship that would last centuries would be born from good intentions, and pave the way to the creation of a new world.

The Portuguese enclave would be constructed in a walled-off suburb within the outskirts of the major port of Prosphorion, sitting within the mouth of the Elysian Bay. It would be through the port that all maritime trade into the Elysian Bay going towards the capital would flow through. It would become the perfect place for the construction of the Portuguese enclave, keeping the Europeans active within their small community, which would be named Alcântara after the surrounding town nearby Lisbon.

Portuguese merchants would settle within the enclave with their families, working as sailors and bringing old-world knowledge to the shores of the new world. Alcantara would become the first of many enclaves to emerge in the new world, but it would become the largest European enclave within the Empire for generations to come.

With expansion efforts concentrated northward, the south would be opened up following the integration of the Tuscarora bringing attention to the region. With colonia largely hugging along the Elysian coast through the gradual creation and establishment of maritime settlements along the oceans and rivers, the interior would be carefully mapped out and charted. With Mout Aithia showing strong progress during its construction, where the St Ioannes Monastery acted as the largest of the religious buildings on the holy mountain, Theophilios would regulate a large portion of the economy towards a bold and aggressive pattern to establish colonia in the south.

A concentrated effort would begin to colonize the region to the fringe of the barbaroi territory. Many colonia was to be established along the interior, although largely left without investment and to develop at their own pace, while the empire focused heavily on securing the coastline with new major settlements until attention would be pushed to the interior. It would drastically push colonia resources beyond its limit, but the benefits would result in far more settlements being established in a wild burst instead of a concentrated push.

Hoping to make the most of this aggressive bold tactic, it would push the economy to its current limits. For the time being, aside from Mount Aithia, the empire would remain passive and inward. Architecture and expansion would define the remainder of the decade, where Theophilios II would further push for his grand vision of a blossoming empire.

Theophilios II would begin to see the painting of the grand empire that his predecessors had painted finally take form. What had once been wilderness would be replaced by small villages. Like Augustus in antiquity, Theophilios II would be responsible for transforming Nea Konstantinopolis and the rest of the empire from a city of brick that bloomed into a city of marble. Villages would be turned into cities in an architectural revolution, fueled by the immense wealth of the Empire, as Elysium began to rapidly catch up to the rest of the developed lands of Europe in rapid development. Prosphorion

Scholars would discover a book dating back to the destruction of Carthage, describing the architecture of its famous grand harbor, known as a Cothon. Many of the scholars suggested that much of the information would be exaggerated, due to the tendency of ancient historians, but the design of the Cothon would inspire the Emperor and his architects. The construction and upgrade of a grand harbor within Prosphorion would boost the wealth of its ports tremendously. Using ancient designs and modern architectural inspiration, the Grand Cothon of Prosphorion was to become the centerpiece of an enormous overhaul of the port city. Only ambition and time were the only constraints to Prosphorions potential.

With much of the imperial territories becoming ruled largely by the authority from the capital, the vast lands under jurisdiction would span in all directions from north to south. To ensure the smooth operation of its provinces under the imperial domain, the bureaucracy of the empire would become greatly centralized to ease control. Much to the dismay of the estates due to the restrictive lack of freedoms, it would allow the imperial government easier management and to take a more direct hand in government.

Theophilios had done much during his reign. He had spent much of his early life living within the shadow of a doomed city but now had everything that Theophilios ever wanted in Elysium. He had the love of his life in the form of Aida and the children that he had raised to become the future of their nation. Years would begin to turn into decades, and the youth that had once existed all over his face was fleeting beyond his control. He and Aida were no longer the youthful souls they once were. Their faces had become aged and their hair both turned a flowing silver. Theophilios II still felt like he was only just beginning to begin his work, to construct the crafts he had dreamt about.

He would sit on the throne as the Emperor of the Romans. He wouldn’t live to know that he would be the last of his kind...
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So, first of all, really wanted to say this is quite excellent. I appreciate that you've taken your time with both odyssey and nation-building with Elysia and especially your more narrative interludes.

Secondly, due to those interludes I'm pushing it upon you to nominate next week's Best Character Writer of the Week, for you are chosen this week.

Thank you so very much! I really hope you enjoy the story!

That last sentence worries me. What if this priest and those like him accuse non-Plethonists of being Plethonists by accident? A witch hunt is one of the last things Elysia needs...

That being said, it's nice to see that the religious wars are over... hopefully a united Elysia can emerge from them...

Hopefully, the Plethonists will remain as nothing more than an ugly footnote in history. Hopefully.

Really great story so far -- have never read an AAR from this mod, but it seems really well put together with all the flavor events and such, without railroading the player too much. You're crafting it into an awesome story to boot, look forward to seeing more!

Thank you for your support!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 12: The End of an Era (1487-1492)​

Everything had once started in Palermo. Back in a cloth shop, an unexpected encounter between a prince named Theophilios waited with a strange proposal to an unexpected someone. He sought the help of a woman named Aida, being suggested by her older sister, for help with his accounting. Her numbers and calculations, taught by her father, had been the only reason that their family business had remained afloat in the last few years since his sudden unfortunate passing. An hour earlier, Aida had been devastated by her sister’s sudden departure and was now invited to follow in her footsteps. Without Aurelia, the family business would be doomed to fail. But now a prince had arrived to seek her help. Curiosity would drive Theophilios to meet with her, coming into her life with more earthy interests and driven by a pursuit of knowledge. A first encounter would lead to them meeting, but she quickly gained his attention.

Outside under the warm sunshine of Palermo, the two of them would head towards the enormous fleet that was resupplying in the docks of the harbor. Aida was able to see countless sailors and people around the harbor and on the ships. She could swear that she was able to spot her sister amongst the crowd, standing upon one of the largest ships within the harbor. Her mind would be a flurry of thoughts about her decision. Had she acted too rashly? Did this Prince believe in what he was truly seeking to accomplish? Abandoning the Old World to find refuge and safety in a new one? It didn’t seem to make any sense to her. Not even she could find the reason in her mind to abandon her only home.

Theophilios turned around once he made it to a large ship, the Agia Theotoke, stopping before an elevated gangway. He looked towards the commoner and extended his hand outward to her, inviting her onboard with him. Aida could see her sister speaking to another older man, laughing and appearing smitten with this other man. She looked hesitantly at his hand and what it meant, what it could mean, before taking his hand.

Aida of Sicily, Empress of Rome, would never drop the hand of her future husband again. Over forty years had passed since their awkward first encounter, having grown into an incredibly wise and knowledgeable woman during her years on the throne. She had crossed the oceans into an entirely new world, helping her husband transform wood into stone, crafting wonders, and bringing the spark of civilization at a speed that few had ever expected. Almost all of the exiled souls upon the fleet she had arrived on were resigned to spend the rest of their days living within an impoverished city, suffering the weight of its sickness and despair, only to see Nea Konstantinopolis resemble more of an imperial capital than the old city could ever be. In the end, there was a lot of accounting after all.

Aida would hold onto her husband's hand, surrounded nearby by many of her adult children on the edge of the capital. The aqueduct's latest expansion had finished today, and the commoners have given it an affectionate name. “Aida’s Aqueduct”, they had called it, just as they had referred to the walls of Theophilios. The Empress’s project and sponsored expansion would stretch for miles, transforming it into a defining landmark of the rapidly growing capital.

Aida looked over at her husband for a moment as the commoners cheered their names. Together they had shaped this strange new world into their own. Together they had set the very first stone in which their realm would grow. Fresh water would flow for the first time in a far-flung district of the capital, where both Emperor and Empress would take a cup and drink from it. Their subjects would cheer and join them, but Aida didn’t break the smile and adoration she had for her husband as she looked into each other's eyes. Memories of the time together during the cold nights huddled on the Agia Theotoke and their wedding day would flash through their minds. Even for a single moment, one more, they existed in a world built just for the two of them.

They were not the young souls that they had once been. But they were happy. Fate had been cruel, but sometimes two souls were destined to meet and love each other. Aida was content that she had made the world a better place, something she had never imagined when she was a young girl in Sicily.

Decades earlier, expeditionary scouts had ventured outward in all directions to search for a reliable and easily accessible source of Naphtha. Discovering it in the northeast near the vast Borealian lakes, the Romans would come into contact with the Erie, a local tribe controlling the area who were remarkably friendly and receptive to Roman diplomats and traders. Much like the Powhatan before them, the Erie would accept an incredibly generous trade deal that would see their wealth skyrocket, something which would only be maintained for as long as the tribe remained friendly to the empire.

It had been for nearly twenty years that the Erie had existed within the distant periphery of imperial influence. As long as Roman merchants would source the naphtha, the Empire guaranteed its independence and sent wealth flowing into the tribe. Due to the long relationship between Nea Konstantinopolis and the tribe, when missionaries were dispatched to help convert the natives, it became a resounding success. The Eire would convert to Orthodoxy en-masse. While a part of a military alliance, the Erie was almost a vassal in all but name to the Greeks.

Within ten years of landing in the wild lands of the south, Leonidas I and his army would carve a kingdom through blood and iron in the jungles of Laconia. Conquering many of the local people through strategic brilliance and advanced tactics, along with his elite forces coming to aid the natives, Leonidas’s kingdom could be seen through all levels of their society. Through the destruction of entire native kingdoms, the conqueror would see that his Spartan realm was no more and proclaimed a new kingdom in its place. A proud kingdom, combining both the Hellenic and native words, into the Kingdom of Spartania.

Taking inspiration from their Spartan ancestors while aided with native ingenuity, Spartania would become a regional juggernaut that would be ruled by a strict ruthless caste system. At the top of its social order was the ‘Apogonoi’, the descendants of the ten thousand original spartan warriors, acting as the elite of the martial society. Few in number, the Apogonoi would serve as powerful statesmen and as generals. Along with an allied and converted native aristocracy, occupying top positions within government, church, and military, the native allies to Leonidas would call themselves the ‘Pipiltin’.

Just below them would be the ‘Pochteca’, the merchants, living along the coastline and frequently conducting a trade or naval expeditions. Pochteca merchants would also serve as spies, conducting espionage against the remaining native kingdoms that schemed together to destroy the new kingdom. At the bottom of its society were the ‘Tlacotin’ slaves, usually prisoners of war, used as servants and laborers to conduct the most brutal backbreaking labor for the kingdom. The children of the slaves would be released and join the rest of the population as ‘Macehulatin’, the peasant class of their society, who were destined to serve along the farms.

Leonidas I would seek to conquer the entire region, leading his elite armies and aided by native auxiliaries, to conquer the brutal native empires of the Aztecs and the Mayans. Serving as a Christian king first and foremost, the King also placed much effort on the Christinization of the natives within his kingdom while subjugating them at the same time, taking inspiration from Charlemagne as a ‘civilizing’ force against the brutal pagans. With his elite forces conquering realm after realm, leaving the Pipiltin to govern the region once he moved on to his next target, Leonidas would pursue what would become the defying character of Spartania for the next few centuries. Domination, in all forms. Only through domination both physically and spiritually could Lakonia be tamed, especially against the bloodthirsty Aztecs, whom the King held a special hatred against.

Back across the seas, innovation would run rampant among the brightest of minds, with new developments in the art of glassmaking and metalwork allowing for the creation of more refined scientific instruments. Natural philosophers, astronomers, and chemists would be able to hone their craft with more complex equipment through recent breakthroughs that had given the Empire a scientific edge. Additional abit limited information from Portuguese merchants would also aid the Roman scientists, leading to bounds of innovation that the scientists eagerly awaited to achieve.

Empress Aida would become famous throughout the empire not for her brilliant mind, but for her charming personality and unparalleled kindness. With a heart of gold, a visit with her husband to Troizen would see the Empress witness the suffering of its poorest peasants with her own eyes. Troizen had done much to recover from the Plethonist Revolt, but it also served as the site of the first rebellion of the religious civil war and was largely left destitute. Even decades after the crisis, despite its important location as an important harbor close to Elysian Bay, much of the city had failed to recover following the devastation. As a result, Triozen became a backwater city. Entire suburbs, once home to thriving communities, had been left to decay into slums for the poor.

Since returning to the capital, Aida remained adamant about making things right, drafting a plan to help the most destitute of her subject. Having done the budgeting and accounting through finances herself, the Empress wished to make these ideas into a reality and bring Troizen back into a thriving city. To make these ideas a reality, the Empress requested funds from the imperial treasury.

Feeling responsible for the plight of the subjects, along with Aida’s good nature, Theophilios gave the support that his wife needed to help Troizen. A large-scale relief effort would begin to aid the destitute of the city, while a financial injection into the city’s budget would see the city begin to come back to life. The inhabitants of Troizen would be shocked at the generosity and kindness of their Empress, long having heard stories of her beloved popularity in the capital, and would forever owe their gratitude and respect to her. A large stone of Aida Orsini would be built in the center of town, where it would remain, forever memorialising her beautiful kind spirit.

In times that had long past, the Empire held many fortresses and walled towns, which would prevent enemies from attacking any of its core cities until they had breached every one of the outer castles. In Elysium, the Empire would do the very same, yet it would not be enough to merely build stone walls. The Empire would begin to construct cannons and stout men to ensure that the defenses within Elysium would stand. No enemy, be it barbaroi or foreigner, would lay siege or attack while its valiant defenders drew breath. To desire peace, the empire prepared for war. And with the envy of the world looking towards its shores, Elysium will be prepared.

Almost half a century had passed along within relative isolation. What had once been a refugee camp of exiled souls had given birth to a nation that was well enough developed to be considered a true nation. No longer would the Romans be mere settlers in a foreign land, for the made this land their own and populated it far and wide. The natives would come to see the Greeks and Latins from their exiled world beyond the sea as newcomers, but had now grown accustomed enough to deal with them like equals.

Theophilios II would proclaim the empire, long having prepared for this moment for years, for what many had envisioned as the logical next step. With the Emperor being assisted by a royal council inside the imperial palace for generations, Theophilios II would declare the restoration of the Imperial Senate in Elysium, with its first modern meeting occurring in a recently constructed senate in the later months of 1490.

Led by a hereditary emperor, an elderly Theophilios II would grant substantial power to the dynatoi and provincial governors who comprised much of the ruling class of the Empire. With senators formally only drawn from the oldest families, Theophilios II would reform its structure considerably, allowing the public to follow politicians that they know and feel that they too have a voice in the running of the state. A wealthy commoner with enough political acumen could rise through the administrator to become a governor or senator in their own right should they achieve it. Such a delegation of power would provide a far greater wealth of experience for politicians, with a well-governed and highly stable empire being its own reward.

It was the largest political reform of the reign of Theophilios II and one that would forever enshrine the Emperor into the annals of history. While granting concessions to the new senators that resulted in a sacrifice of a portion of his own imperial authority, Theophilios’s popularity rose astronomically. Now that the Empire was making a true homeland, one that was no longer bound through the suffering of its ancient past, Theophilios II would begin a new chapter in imperial history.

Twenty years of intense financial investment which had almost bankrupted the Empire would eventually pay off, with Mount Aithaia finally being completed. Decades of hard work, with no more stone left to be moved or a wall left to be finished. Its workers could barely believe that the day would ever come, and for a moment, everyone looked up at the holy mountain in silence to look at the wonder they had constructed.

This was merely but a glimpse of what the empire could do together. It was the hands of its people. The minds of its engineers. And the faith of every man, woman, and child. Everything had led to this moment in Elysium. It was perhaps a spark that only a few could see, but now, it was a joyous occasion. An Empire would come together and construct its wonders, building upon its dreams, to admire the work of its splendor. All of those involved in the project would finally understand that perhaps finally, they had made Elysium their home. This was Rome, and yet, this was Elysium.

The Monastery of Saint Ioannes would finally be finished. Pilgrims would travel through the rough Apaleisian roads to reach Mount Aithaia, where after all these years, the thoughts of Mount Athos would still hold a sacred site in their hearts. It would be a place where they could look in the name of their holy faith, one where Elysian Orthodoxy would call home. The icon of Saint Ioannes, the first made in Elysium, would be the central piece that would bring crowds of worshippers to walk the path west. Its location on the top of Mount Aithaia, built to be a place of reflection and prayer, would see a constant influx of travelers that would make it an obligatory stop for every merchant seeking to cross the mountains into the untamed interior beyond the Apalesians.

With its completion, a synod would be called by the Ecumenical Patriarch, which recognized the monastery as finally being finished and officially stated its activity as part an institution of the holy church in Elysium. Theophilios would attend the synod and smile, recognising this as a clear sign of god’s will being performed on the continent. Others would claim that Saint Ioannes himself would follow Christ beyond the Old World and into the new one, guiding the exiled fleet. All of the blessings have been bestowed over the throne and the empire as a whole.

With such a great work of art and engineering, the project would grant a deep knowledge of engineering and construction. Scholars and engineers would work together to shape the land, stone, and wood used to make the first of what was hoped to be many magnificent monuments in Elysium. Such an accomplishment was completed in rapid time, fueled by a pressing attitude to atone for the mistakes of the Plethonist Revolts and given an overabundance in resources and finances, completed so quickly that many engineers felt as if their hands were guided by the Holy Spirit.

No longer were they exiles, finding themselves lost in the wild world they found after their flight. Towers and domes would rise in the mountain, mosaics filling every corner and wall of the monastery, the first of what was hoped to be many across Mount Aithos and its surrounding mountains. Monks and priests would sing in the halls, and thousands kneel in front of the Holy Mountain. No longer were the exiles alone, for they were the builders of a new world. A new land, their land, following the sacred light of Christ.

With their work completed, many of the workers and scholars would make their way down the mountain to begin their pursuit of new wonders to construct. Some would settle at the bottom of the mountain, others would find their way into different corners of the empire. Many had decided to move on to bigger and better things, constructing churches and homes in the thriving urban cities that were dotting the landscape. The monks in the Monastery of Saint Ioannes would be left to reflect in peace, here the priests and monks would remain until the end of days, giving thanks to Saint Ioannes and Christ, on the top of a holy mountain.

Decades of reigning alongside her husband, Theophilios and Aida had spent their lives building a world for themselves and their subjects. For decades, the popular royal couple had ruled the untamed land. Civilization appeared out of nothing from what had been a wilderness, and cities of wood and brick would be transformed into stone. Where plains and forests stood, roads and aqueducts marked the countryside.

In the cold winter of 1491, only one of the two would remain. Theophilio’s consort, the dear Empress of Rome, would pass away from a brief yet devastating illness. On an overcast day, she would rest forever as her funeral took place, her work immortalized in the lands and history of the empire. The beloved empress would be mourned by weeks following her passing. Her children would be left distraught at the sudden loss of their mother, where Aida’s sons and daughters would struggle to cope with her loss for some time, while many of the Emperor’s extended family and friends across the dynatoi would offer their tributes and condolences.

Theophilios would be left completely devastated upon Aida’s death. Aida had told her husband to keep working shortly before he died, hoping to continue all of the designs and plans that the royal couple had hoped to complete. Theophilios would spend evenings completely alone in the imperial palace, strolling across the garden that he and Aida had once planted, or venturing down the hallways in the middle of the night aimlessly. The Emperor would fall into a deep depression that he wouldn’t ever recover from.

Alexios VI Palaiologos, Emperor of Elysium. He would be the first Emperor to be born in the New World. ​

In the early morning of January 23rd 1492, distraught and alone, Theophilios II Palaiologos died of a stroke while sitting in a chair in front of the Imperial Palace. He would die at the age of seventy-two, living just another four months after his wife had died. He would be buried next to her in the imperial palace, and while he had never known it, he would be among the last of the Romans.

With his death, the era of the Masters of the Odyssey would finally come to an end. Gone were the Emperors who had lived through the loss of the queen of cities and their exodus from the old world. An entirely new generation would be born in Elysium who had never known any other world but their own. It would be among the verdant fields of Elysium where the heritage over twenty centuries old would come to an end. The time of the Romans had come to an end.

The time of Elysium was only just beginning.

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It looks like European explorers will arrive soon. Sadly, Elysia doesn't look to be in a good position to reclaim the old empire yet. Maybe an alliance with native powers will help deal with potential colonizers?

How will the Orthodox left in Europe react to this council?

It's only a matter of time before the envy of Europe inevitably sails towards Elysium. For better or worse...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Theophilios II Palaiologos
Lived: March 26th 1420 - January 23rd 1492
Emperor of the Romans: 1469 - 1492
The Third Master of the Odyssey

Theophilios II would become an Emperor during what was perhaps the most crucial period of his nation's history, sitting at the crossroads during a period of exponential growth undergoing a crisis of identity. Theophilios II would rule for the betterment of his subjects while playing an important role in the developmental transformation of the imperial realm into a thriving nation in its own right. Architectural and urban development would grow exponentially under a thriving renaissance movement that had blossomed in full swing, continuing the work of his predecessor Konstantinos XI. Along with his beloved wife Aida, the Emperor would transform what had once been open wilderness into flourishing cities, designing a world that was unrecognizable only just several years earlier. It would be in Elysium that Theophilios II would become the Last of the Romans and among the First of the Elysians.

Theophilos II would be born in the early months of 1420, cousin to future emperor Konstantinos XI, as a member of the Palaiologos. Theophilios would be known for his incredible intelligence, which would quickly shine through at a young age. Known as a grammarist, humanist, and mathematician, Theophilios would be described as a man of ‘noble lineage and deep scholarship’ who made a sharp impression on strangers and visitors who sought his help. Theophilios would help aid his family and nation by organizing logistics while preparing for the exodus from the old world, ensuring that the ships would remain supplied during the flight from Europe.

Making a name for himself among the aristocracy, a routine stop in Palmero would lead Theophilios to meet the love of his life, Aida Orsini. The two of them would deeply fall in love, spending moments that they could with each other during the flight from the old world and upon landing in Elysium. Both of them would become popular among the common people and within imperial society for their innate benevolence and intelligent designs, planning cities and architecture through a shared genius affiliation for mathematics and accountants. Theophilios would be directly responsible for designing the city plan of Nea Konstantinopolis and was highly influential in the design of many of its future landmarks both within the imperial capital and across the rest of the realm. The Theophilian Walls would be named after him, while Aida’s Aqueduct would be designed and named after his wife. The Imperial Palace of Nea Konstantinopolis would be built and designed by Theophilios, where later generations would greatly enrich and expand the boundaries of the palace. The Grand Cothon of Prosphorion and the emerging development and overhaul of the port city would begin redevelopment and construction under Theophilios’s reign.

The future monarch would also play a pivotal role in the finance and construction of the Saint Ioannes Monastery on the top of Mount Aithaia, while making designs and sketches for other architectural designs for buildings and other cities, many of which wouldn’t be constructed till long after his death. Upon his ascension to the throne in 1469, Theophilios II would become associated with many significant events to occur during his reign. The expedition of Belisarios Palaiologos into Lakonia would occur with imperial assistance, along with the rediscovery of the shipwrecked survivors of Kaudia where he would personally travel to the island and sway them diplomatically to the imperial fold. The Varangian Order would be established in a small fiefdom of the Empire, granting autonomy to his influential Varangian guard as an imperial subject.

The most important occurrences during Theophilios II’s reign would occur in the form of the Council of Odessos, which would see the birth of Elysian Orthodoxy within the new world, which would evolve and change as the Elysian-Roman state would expand and grow in size. Isolated from the rest of the world and declaring independence from the Eastern Orthodox Church, Elysian Orthodoxy, and its church would begin to take on an identity of its own that would alter greatly from the Old World in terms of dogma. The religious split between Europe and Elysium would be complete, separated by the oceans, as the Romans of the New World would find their new spiritual identity.

Several years later, after decades of isolation, the discovery and contact with Portuguese explorers and merchants would put an end to the isolation between the separated worlds. Almost forty years of isolation had come to an end, but the encounter would come with discovery and opportunity. Theophilios II would establish a Portuguese enclave, isolated from the rest of his people while offering a grand proposition in the form of diplomatic and trade deals. It would become the start of a pivotal relationship between the two different worlds, where the start of future Elysian and Portuguese hegemony would ultimately take root.

Near the end of his reign and during the twilight years of his life, an elderly Theophilios II would restructure the entire government of his dominion. Having prepared for this moment for years and envisioning it as the logical next step in its destiny, the Emperor would declare the restoration of the Imperial Senate in Elysium, granting substantial powers to the dynatoi and provincial governors who comprised much of the ruling class of the Empire. Reforming the structure of the senate to allow access and opportunities to arise, while allowing for easier governance of the growing realm and higher stability, at the cost of a sacrifice of his own imperial authority. Theophilios II would enjoy a wide amount of support during his reign for his priority on the development of new lands and existing cities while embracing the Renaissance elements to its fullest. The Emperor would remain highly popular among almost all elements of imperial society for making Elysium a true homeland of the Romans, no longer bound through the suffering of its ancient past.

The loss of Aida would devastate Theophilios beyond repair, sending the Emperor into a deep depression that he would never recover from. Before her death, Aida would tell her husband to keep working to continue all of the designs and dreams that the royal couple had hoped to complete. Theophilios would keep himself working for as long as he could, knowing that he would die should the Emperor ever stop. Becoming a ghost of his former self, venturing into the imperial palace completely alone and aimlessly walking down the hallways that he and Aida built, Theophilios would only live for another four months following the death of his wife. On January 23rd, 1492, distraught and alone, Theophilios II Palaiologos died of a stroke while sitting in a chair in front of the Imperial Palace. He would be the last Master of the Odyssey.

Theophilios would be buried in a secure crypt within the confines of the Imperial Palace, beside his wife Aida, which would be sealed away by future emperors to preserve the resting place of the esteemed ruler. Following the completion of the Hagia Theotoke, Theophilios’s remains were exhumed and reburied alongside Saint Ioannes and Saint Konstantinos in an elaborate burial ceremony. Both of the Orsini sisters would be buried near Theophilios, where they would spend their eternal rest with their husbands.

Theophilios would become the only Master of the Odyssey to not be canonized as a Saint, although the Emperor would hold an incredible amount of respect among the Church for his religious patronage and contribution in the form of the Mount Aithaia monasteries and his support for religious reform. Like Augustus before him, Theophilios would spend his life-transforming Rome from a city of brick into a capital of marble.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 13: Something ends, something begins (1492-1495)​

The period of the three emperors, its Masters of the Odyssey, came to an end in the early months of 1492. The legacy of Theophilios II, though marked by his passing, lingered in the collective memory of the people through his position as the leading architect of the burgeoning realm that was still in its infancy. Societal, cultural, and economic shifts that would accompany its ascent within the New World would alter the destiny of the Romans forevermore following the coronation of Alexios VI to the imperial throne, seeking to draw inspiration for his realm that transcended more than mere conquest. Its new emperor would seek to establish a realm characterized by unity, prosperity, and enlightened governance

The transformative period would result in a shift of identity, which had begun ever since the earliest moments upon the establishment of Nea Konstantinopolis, and would see the imperial legacy of the Romans begin to change and adapt to their new homeland. Long having been united under the umbrella identity of being Roman, the myriad of ethnic and cultural polities of the Empire would no longer view itself as the inheritors of an ancient empire. Long having called the lands of Elysium home, it would be through his rule that would forever change his empire and the legacy it would inherit from its ancient forefathers.

Since the first moments the Grand Fleet would arrive in Elysium, the administration of the exiled state had remained extremely ad-hoc in nature. What had once been a complex and extremely robust system of generals, governors, governor-generals and armed tax collectors had disintegrated and ceased to exist over the many long harsh decades of the slow decline of the empire. The sporadic flight of the Romans to Elysium would hardly improve matters, further reducing the capabilities of the already limited number of administrators and military leaders. Nobles would be taken during the flight, hoping to use their theoretical skills to aid the administrative burden, but the reality of the wilderness of Elysium would see the aristocracy instead repurposed to tame a wild and virgin continent. As matters around survival overwhelmed and overcame the simple necessity of bureaucracy, it would be left in steep decline as the imperial state would be left attending to other matters.

With the rise of Alexios VI to the throne, and with the recently established Imperial Senate behind him, the stratification between military generals and civilian governors would be re-established. Alexios VI would become a keen reformist, along with certain members of his court sharing a similar reformist attitude. His first act upon his coronation to the throne would result in the establishment of a new office to guide the expansion of new colonia into wild lands, along with treasury officials being drafted en masse into a new office to mitigate tax fraud and combat corruption.

Alexios VI’s actions would serve as a harsh slap in the face to the system, awakening it to the reality that had slowly adapted to a malignant and inefficient bureaucracy that his father and uncle had left alone to fester under its weight. Senators and governors would enact administrative reforms to modernize the new imperial system under the demand of the Emperor and royal court.

Expeditions undertaken by the Kaudans to the southern islands, and the many potential riches that the region would hold, would bring terrific news to the imperial capital. Against all odds, the people of Lanthanopolis had already managed to establish a small but successful colony on the tropical islands to their south, opening up expansion into the region. This would spark fierce debate in the newly reformed senate on wherever the remote Kaudan administration should retain its autonomy, almost dividing the senate on the matter as the Senators argued for days at a time about the matter.

Members of the senate advocated for a full integration of the Kaudans into the realm, ending their autonomy and thus taking direct control of the southern expansionary efforts. Such senators would argue about the shared heritage of the island with the wider empire as a whole. Others would point out that Kauda had remained an ever-stalwart subject of the empire and acted as a bulwark to the east, further arguing that their integration in their current form would cause the empire to be stretched thin.

Alexios VI would later side with the senators who wished to preserve their autonomy, while also seeking to further control the remote subject and bring them into stronger imperial influence. In doing so, should the region be integrated, the archipelago would be under friendly imperial influence for some time and allow for easier integration. While the senators would view the Emperor’s suggestion as placating to their cause, the majority would see the pragmatism within the decision. Kauda would continue to exist in their current state of affairs as stalwart vassals, while the empire would pay close attention to their expansion across the southern islands.

After almost fifty years of isolation from the rest of the old world, the time had come to see what had become of Europe. Long having remained insular and primarily focused on its immediate surroundings, the Emprie lacked any capabilities nor the interest to venture back across the ocean that had almost put an early end to the odyssey following the Great Storm. To this end, the Empire would request the service of a famous explorer named Pytheas Gregoras. Using both ancient maps from the Romans as well as scattered accounts from the flight from Europe, would intend to lead an expedition of three small ships eastward to explore the coastline and the interior of Europe.

With his ships being completely stocked with supplies and sailors, Pytheas and his expeditionary force would sail outward into the blue horizon before vanishing beyond it. Estimating that the journey would take three years to complete, the explorer remained confident that the old world would be entirely charted upon his return to Elysium. The allure of discovery would be a double-edged blade, one that would be wielded by the empire when the time came to finally reveal itself to the world. Contact with the old world would allow trade to flourish and inventions to spread, but the old world empires would waste little time in claiming Elysia and its vast riches for themselves. All that could be done was to prepare for the inevitable storm that would break as soon as the two different worlds would meet.

Reformist attitudes within the Imperial Senate would see an overwhelming amount of support to fund and support the expansion of bureaucracy outward. Imperial rule would be extended towards the frontier with greater ease, while government modernization would continue with the utmost pace. Provincial autonomy would be reduced as law and order would be extended outward, further centralizing power within Nea Konstantinopolis and empowering regional governors and senators.

With expeditionary efforts undertaken by the Kaudans, the small population of the island and lack of supplies would greatly weaken any efforts for establishing a suitable colonial presence within the southern archipelago. Looking to help provide economic support to their tiny subject, Kauda would receive backing from the empire to subsidize any colonial efforts. As long as they would not remain in debt, the economic investment would guarantee oversight of a presence in the archipelago, which would be named Kykladia.

With Kaudan colonists arriving at the Kykladian Isles, settlers among the colonia would quickly come into the presence of a strong Portuguese presence settling among the archipelago. Several thousand Portuguese settlers, merchants, sailors, and soldiers would settle in the region and quickly come into an uneasy relationship with Kauda. Both sides would claim to be encroaching onto each other, while the native population of the island would be stuck in the middle between them.

Despite the strong relationship with the Portuguese which had come into fruition over the past few years, the Empire would be put in a difficult diplomatic position on how to proceed and whom to support. Opinion would once more divided among the Senate between a Pro-European and Pro-Elysian camp within politics. Alexios VI would remain firmly positive on supporting the European faction, but didn’t want to compromise should the situation escalate. Portuguese colonial governors would remain cautious and anxious, showing a similar attitude to the Romans of Elysium.

Long having remained a part of a dormant aspect of the imperial army due to their extremely limited numbers, horses would return to the main continent for the first time in thousands of years following their local extinction in minuscule numbers. Holding barely more than a very precious few that survived the Great Storm, attempts at breeding establishments across the empire would see little success due to a population and genetic bottleneck that almost saw the equine population extinguished. Once contact with Portugal was established, demand for horses quickly was one of the top priorities of livestock between the two worlds. The Portuguese would supply the Empire with a growing equine market, where the Romans would pay enormous amounts of money to establish a strong and sustainable equine population of their own in their world for both military and agricultural purposes.

Iberian horses would arrive in Elysium through the crucial port city of Prosphorion and the Portuguese exclave of Alcântara, arriving in greater numbers over the next few years until an entirely self-sufficient population would be established. Decades after arriving and maintaining care of the limited equines they had, the stable population of horses would allow the Empire to finally establish their native population. Generals and military commanders would be overjoyed, finally being given the chance to formally introduce true cavalrymen into the army.

From the beginning of 1493, the first Elysian Cataphracts would be established. Armed and armored in the old style, in scale and chain, the super-heavy riders would be armed to the teeth with maces, lances, and bows. Nearly impervious to any blows the natives could strike, a calvary charge by the Cataphracts would be enough to frequently end battles. As a result, the Cataphracts would gain an infamous reputation that served as the tip of the spear in battle.

Long having remained the dominant power within the continent, the imperial army was only prepared to battle and counter native forces on the terrain of Elysium. Despite the current prowess and discipline of its forces, the imperial army in its current form could not compare to the mass armies of the European powers. Its small size and limited options would bring the foremost military minds of the empire to agree upon modernization and reformist movements within the army, and now that the time was now right, a complete overhaul of the current system would be needed to reform the military into something far more less ad-hoc.

Engaging with the brightest minds of the army, Alexios VI would push for the restoration and use of a renewed theme system to be applied within the New World. The system would grant recruits land on the frontier in exchange for service, simultaneously securing a steady source of well-trained individuals and enhancing the defense of any colonia across the frontier. The Emperor and the Senate would anticipate resistance from the dynatoi, as such a reform would curtail their own territorial ambitions.

In addition to the reformation of the system, the Imperial Army would transition into a professional standing army. Much like the Romans of old, soldiers of the new army would undergo rigorous training and strict discipline akin to the ancient Legionaries. When not fighting a battle, recruits, and soldiers would be training and honing their skills. It would take several years for the changes to be fully implemented across the width of the empire, but the reorganization was to ensure completely to both Elysium and Europe that the Empire had soldiers worthy of protecting it.

Three years after his expedition had begun, Pytheas would return to his homeland. With the help of ancient sources and making an uneventful voyage, in stark contrast to the previous attempt to journey across the sea, his small collection of ships would arrive off the coast of Ireland. Gaining knowledge of or visiting firsthand many different kingdoms and republics across the continent, the majority of the old world that had changed drastically in their absence, Pytheas’s presence would cause political shockwaves across the nobles of Europe. It was confirmation that the Roman flight from Europe hadn’t ended in disaster and that they had survived, which only caused further curiosity. Pytheas became a celebrity among the courts of Europe, where he would spend much of his time gathering information before eventually returning home.

Upon his long-awaited return, Pytheas would chart the maps of Europe and reveal his knowledge of what had occurred to the wider realm. Pytheas’s deeds would ensure him the position of admiral within the imperial navy, should he choose to serve. Instead, Pytheas would seek to continue his expeditions into the unknown lands beyond Elysium to chart the rest of the world, all with the backing of the empire's coffers. The Emperor would grant this immediately, and just as soon as he arrived back in Elysium, Pytheas immediately set sail once more into the unknown.

The political realities of the old world would fascinate the Empire to no end, learning about what had occurred to the world that had been left behind. Western Europe had seen the rise of England through the total conquest of Ireland and much of Scotland, where they had become a formidable maritime power. Britannia seemed to be inevitably ruled from the halls of power in London.

France and Burgundy would be locked into a bitter rivalry, frequently fighting each other in brutal wars. Burgundy would seek to destablise a powerful rival that threatened their grip over the region, while France sought to throw the Burgundians out of the French lands entirely and permanently cement its position as the dominant power in Western Europe.

In the fractured lands of Iberia, what had once been the powerful kingdom Aragon would be shattered apart by Castile and France, splintering the region apart while France gained a stronger Mediterranean foothold. Portugal had changed little but would seize control of the Pillars of Hercules from the declining Granadan emirate. Only through alliances with stronger powers and blind luck would the Muslim entity continue to survive to the end of the century in-tact. Castile remained powerful but fragile, having long suffered under rebellions and a civil war that almost destroyed the kingdom. It would be difficult to tell who would unify the Iberians, but whatever power that accomplished the task would be in a powerful position to exert their influence far beyond the peninsular.

On the other side of the Mediterranean, Pytheas would closely follow what had become of the ancestral homeland of Hellas. The Turks had conquered the old city, as expected, but had struggled in outward expansion from Anatolia. Venice would hold onto the Peleoponesse, but it was expected that it was doomed to fall in time, as the Ottomans had proven to be a superior enemy. The other Beyliks would be protected by the Mamluk Sultanate and the other Turkomans within the region.

Pytheas would anticipate, long after he would pass on, that the coming century would see one of these powers attain dominance over the other. The Near East and the cradle of Islam was to be ruled by one of these powers.

Within the realms of central europe, the Holy Roman Empire would be split among the divided princes that would live under the shadow of the heavyweights of the region. The Habsburgs of Austria, ruling a personal union over Hungary, was a diplomatic and military power. Bohemia, still suffering under the legacy of the Hussite wars, had reembraced Catholicism to preserve its position under the threat of its destruction. Next to both of them was the colossus of the Slavic world, the Poland-Lithuanian Union, that dominated Eastern Europe. Perhaps the strongest entity in continental Europe, its powerful economy and military was only limited by the number of enemies it had made through its conquests.

Further to the east, the lands of the Rus would be divided between the harsh rivalry of Muscovy and Novgorod. Split between the powerful monarchy and republican governments, both of them would be split between a rebounding Tatar threat and that of other great powers. Within the next century, the Rus would be unified under one of these powers, yet the destiny of the region remained a giant unknown.

Despite the many successes and trials that the Romans within Elysium had experienced, it had become clear for some time that the Empire that they had inherited was stagnating. Alexios VI was sure of local dominance over the local Barbaroi and the Vinlanders in the north, but the Emperor was sure of that the stagnation within his realm was to only lead to a slow agonizing death over time. The advisors and senators had claimed that was the fate of the old empire in Europe, of how even the Franks would surpass them in the end.

Only through introducing new reforms, encouraging new philosophers and investing in new radical technologies could the fate of the empire be changed. Only then could the specter of slow death be prevented. With the empire no longer limited in its resources of manpower, and developed enough to stand alone, the crisis of stagnation and identity would finally come to a permanent change

Fifty years since the arrival on Elysium, the refugees that had arrived on its shores had been separated from its homeland for generations. Almost nobody alive from the Grand Fleet could remember the time when the ancient empire had sat astride at the crossroads between two different worlds. Long having called the verdant bountiful lands of Elysium home, a great societal change would occur where many would reject their Roman heritage. Laborers, scholars, and priests would no longer hold the mere word ‘Roman’ with the same respect that it once carried. Hearts of men would wander far from a home they would never know and gravitate to the lands that they would grow up in.

Elysium was an entirely different place than the old world, where men and women knew nothing beyond Elysium to care much for the ‘Roman’ name that had been perverted and bastardized by every institution in Europe and beyond. Little would care about the world that they would leave behind, whereas men and women who would identify and call themselves ‘Elysian’ rather than ‘Roman’ do not care at all for the corpse of an empire that they had left behind. It was in Elysium that they had found peace, and to cling onto the name of a dead empire or to care about the decaying East was beyond their concern. It was better to cultivate the green and pleasant land that they had called home than to sail back across the same sea that their ancestors were driven out from at the tip of the sword.

Many would rail against this, taking pride in the heritage of an empire that was thousands of years old. Vengeance burned in their hearts and they saw it as a duty, as the last of their kind, to return to their ancestral homeland and make things right. Some men have nothing left except their identity as citizens of the ancient empire and refuse to give it up.

The Emperor and his subjects had been in Elysium for many decades, and finally, the senate had put forth the question about the identity of the nation. Why should they, the inheritors of the true empire, return to Europe? Why should the Empire undertake a massive undertaking to invade an entrenched enemy to gain a foothold surrounded by powers that had never been sympathetic to the Romans? The senators looked towards verdant Elysium as the only true homeland that they would ever need, and that as a whole, the empire should look inward instead of backward.

Alexios VI would only ever know of Elysium. It was here that he was born and grew up, listening to his parent's stories of what the old world they had grown up in was like. He was a part of the many souls that felt that the destiny of his people would lay inward, to tame the wilderness of the vast continent to build a new home in a new promised land. Despite claiming the mantle and being the inheritor of the Romans, Alexios VI would make a natural yet highly controversial decision that would reverberate through history. The Empire would abandon its Roman heritage, and after centuries of long decline, the dream of the Romans had come to a peaceful end.

The Elysian Empire after its proclamation, January 25th 1495. ​

Alexios VI and the Imperial Senate would declare the proclamation of the Elysian Empire on January 25th 1495, symbolically closing a long chapter of history. By remaining proud of their ancient imperial legacy as the inheritors of the Romans, the new Elysians would not see their Roman identity as something that would define them as a people. They were to be something entirely new, no longer bound to the failures and shackles of their past. Elysia was to carry the torch of their Roman forefathers into a new era. It was the start of a new chapter in history.

And it was to be the start of something magnificent.

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Finally, the Elysian Empire is born! It's been a long time coming, thank you to my readers who have been enjoying the story so far. Now is the time for where the AAR will really start to pick up momentum

Is there a particular reason why he wasn't canonized, especially given his respect in the Church?

Is that line about Elysian and Portuguese hegemony an indication that Portugal won't be (re)conquered by Elysians trying to restore the Roman Empire? And is it an indication that Elysia and Portugal will share the New World or that Portugal will dominate the Old World?

Theophilios II probably didn't fit any of the requirements for canonization, although truthfully I'm not too familiar with how Sainthood works in Orthodoxy.

Elysia and Portugal will play an important role in the new world, but I won't reveal too much for the sake of the story. I will say that the start of something special will occur between two nations

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 14: The Treaty of Elpida (1495-1504)​

The cultural and political transition of the empire would be complete, as the transformative period over the last several decades would lead to the reorganization of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Elysian Empire. Shedding their former identity as merely just ‘Romans’ would become cathartic to many of its people, embracing the new identity that came along with their new nation and its values. A sizable minority that would cling back to the ancient heritage of the old empire would hold onto this with their dying breath, holding onto whatever ounce of vestigial claims had once belonged to the Romans. In the current reality of creating a new identity beyond that of the Romans, Elysia would still hold onto the ancient heritage of their ancestors, more than willing to establish the third Rome in the new world that now bore the name of the people who inhabited it.

The Kykladian Archipelago, the islands to the south of the furthest frontier of the empire, had undergone a considerable shift in recent decades. The arrival of both Portuguese and Kaudan settlers in the region, along with the relative isolation from the rest of the empire and the wider new world as a whole, had resulted in the Kaudan settlers in the region adopting some of the more native customs of the native Taino. Much of the Taino, some of whom had converted to Orthodoxy and joined the wider Kaudan community, had brought a form of ancestor and nature worship that would come to polytheise with their own Christian beliefs on a small scale.

This would lead to the creation of numerous small communities being divided along ancestral lines, with a focus on maritime trade and piracy. Like the Elysians, the Kaudans would see a considerable shift of cultural and political identity that would see their identity transform. Within a few months, Kauda would shed its identity to become Kykkladian. The Kykladian settlers would begin to thrive in areas that the Portuguese settlers, rapidly colonizing the archipelago outward with the wider financial backing of the Elysians on the mainland.

Further exploration in charting the Kykladian Isles southward towards the wild lands of the far south would continue, with Elysian explorers still holding the hope of discovering the mythical lakes of naphtha spoken of by the natives. One of these expeditions would finally bear some fruit, with a monumental discovery of a Naphtha lake on the southwestern side of a discovered island. No historical records going back to ancient times would ever speak of such large deposits, which would discover such a vast amount of naphtha immensely important.

With such an immense distance between the capital and the island, along with the difficulty of transporting the Naphtha during the journey, would bring the senate into discussion on how to proceed. It was agreed that the island would be settled without question, but a significant native population on the island would require a large military presence on the island until a colonia on the island could be fully established. The senate would begin to debate on either securing the island or striking a deal with the locals, deeming it far too important for either the Portuguese or natives to acquire.

Elysian missionary efforts would result in an astonishing success, with the conversion of the remote Penawapskewi to Elysian Orthodoxy, located between the two frontiers of both Elysia and Vinland. Following a devastating Viking raid against the barbaroi tribe that decimated their numbers and wealth, the natives would ally themselves with Elysia after fearing for their independence and newfound faith from encroaching Norse raiders

As the emerging discovery of Elysia and the wider continent of Elysium that it resided on would begin to spread across the old world, the emerging network of trade between the two continents would start to spread between the ports of the two different worlds. Exotic foods from Elysium would begin to rapidly spread into the courts and lands of Europe with wild fascination, with some treating goods such as maize and tomatoes as luxury items rather than food. Equally, an Elysian desire for livestock from the old world would become highly desired, as fields would begin to be filled with cows, donkeys, and horses, making manual labor far easier for all.

All of the treasures and wealth of Elysium would begin to arrive in the old world, and the envy of merchants and princes everywhere looked towards Nea Konstantinopolis. Lands in Elysium that had once been deemed useless for agriculture and now be tilled and used almost all year around, resulting in an agricultural explosion as food availability both in Elysia and across the world over would be far greater than ever before.

Shortly after the arrival of the exiled Romans onto the shores of Elysium, the newfound settlers would discover the natives of the continent practicing some form of slavery. These slaves would include captives from wars and slave raids between tribes, children being sold by their parents during famine, and in some cases, adopting captives to replace members they had lost. As the early settlements on Elysium grew, slavery began to take a new form on the wider continent, as European contact with the new world would greatly influence slavery in scale. Early in its history, the Romans of Elysium would tolerate slavery among the integrated natives but made it more restrictive, requiring that all enslaved barbaroi were to be treated well, paid, and converted to Orthodoxy, but also allowed already enslaved natives to be bought and exported across the empire and the Kykladies if they had already been enslaved.

Long having existed as an unofficial facet of life within Elysium, slavery would officially be signed into law and institutionalized following the proclamation of the Elysian Empire in 1495. Slaves would be imported from Africa, which created a triangular trade system. Europe would sell textiles, rum and manufactured goods to Africa, Africa would sell slaves to Elysium, and Elysium would sell cotton, sugar, and tobacco to Europe. The first slaves would be sent across the Empire into large slave plantations that produced cash crops.

Slavery would come to play an important role in society and the economy, as the concept would come to evolve in the new world and take a life of its own. The demand for slaves would skyrocket as the empire would evolve both politically and socially, and the nature of slavery on the continent would become an ugly matter for many generations to come.

Long having to enter into a friendship between the two nations, the Portuguese and Elysians would agree to a formal military alliance between each other to assist in times of war. Furthering the bond between the empire and the Portuguese, Alexios VI requested a royal marriage between his realm and the Kingdom of Portugal. This marriage would become the first of its kind, as monarchs from both the new and old worlds would be wed. The eldest daughter of the emperor, Anastasia, would marry the unwed Portuguese crown prince. Both were of similar age and took a liking to each other, deepening the bonds between the Elysian and Portuguese from being an economic alliance into an alliance bound by blood and holy matrimony

The relationship between the two nations would further skyrocket and strengthen the legitimacy of the young royal couple, bringing the two realms together. Anastasia would convert to Catholicism and be wed in Lisbon. Many foreign advisors and observers would document and take note of the exotic ‘Greek’ princess from across the ocean. With a Palaiologos married into the royal family, the bond of brotherhood only continued to grow.

As Elysia thrived further to the south, the thriving jarldom of Vinland would be discovered by Europe and spark a wave of fascination as the last remnant of the Viking era that had once plagued the old world. The eagerness among merchants of northern delicacies and luxuries would come to overlook the paganism that was still practiced in the Jarldom. What would leave an impression upon the distant lands would be the fishing market, where the cold waters of Thorfinn Bay and the Gulf of Erikkson were flushed with fish beyond counting. With their regional economy skyrocketing over their dominance on the fishing markets, the Norse would channel their newfound wealth into expansion across the cold lands to the far north.

The merchants of the capital, rich from the trade that would pour into and out of the city, would come before the imperial court with an interesting proposal. With Pyneas ventures into the old world, a small number of wealthy Elysians would make the long journey across the ocean to see the sights and marvels of the world they had left behind. They would encounter the famed Arsenal of Venice in person and the ships mass-produced there, and inspired by the descendants of the Venetians that accompanied the Greeks in their exile, wished to build a second arsenal in Elysia.

Alexios VI would remain skeptical about the finances required for such a project. Such an expensive project was enough to bankrupt much of the empire, but it would allow the Empire to mass produce warships, trading vessels, and all manner of shipborne armaments on a scale that would never be seen. The merchants had already come up with blueprints, wishing to begin construction of the project alongside the enormous redevelopment of the harbor district of Prosphorion, serving as a larger extension of the Cartheginian-inspired Grand Cothon that was under construction. In addition, not bound within the constraints of land unlike in the densely crowded Venice, the ‘Arsenal of Elysia’ had room to grow and expand along the harbor. With the enormous redevelopment of Prosphorion’s harbour, alongside an existing fortress in the city, would transform the mouth of the Elysian Bay into an impenetrable fortress upon whom its naval might alone could rival entire kingdoms.

The Emperor would put aside these plans for the time being, citing the extreme expenses required for the project weren’t a high priority. The project would inspire a member of the imperial family to pursue the Arsenal and the wider Prosphorion development as his passion project. Prince Konstantinos, eldest son to Alexios VI and heir to the throne, was deeply passionate about naval matters and wished to unlock the hidden potential for Elysia to someday rule the waves. If his father wouldn’t pursue the plans during his reign, then the young and eager Konstantinos was more than happy to abide with the like-minded merchants.

In the faraway lands of the Rus, where only the most seldom of news would ever reach the Elysians, the Grand Principality of Muscovy would see its economy collapse under its weight. With its coffers drained from the loss of multiple wars, including a particularly devastating conflict against the Republic of Novgorod, along with poor harvests and the ambitions of opportunistic princes to change the status quo, the incurring debt that had accumulated within Muscovy would eventually reach the point of no return.

Shortly after the bankruptcy of the Grand Principality, what had taken generations to build would quickly come undone as Muscovy collapsed. Many of its minority regions, from the Ugric and Tatars, would break away from the collapsing state. Separatism would become rampant within the principality, and blood was smelt in the water as Muscovy’s ambitious neighbors swarmed around it like sharks. Wherever it liked it or not, Muscovy’s brief time in the sun had come to an end.

With control over the sea passage into Nea Konstantinopolis assured, many among the dynatoi and the Arte dei Defini wished to cement the dominance of the empire by creating twin statues at the mouth of the Seagate that crossed into Prosphorion and the wider Elysian Bay. Several plans would be made up for giant stone statues of guardians, doubling as lighthouses, to be built on both sides of the bay. Construction was expected to take several years, but when completed, the Guardian Statues of Seagate was to become the glorious entryway into the Elysian Bay.

The lighthouses would finish construction by the end of 1498 when much of the imperial economy would be diverted to the finance of the Guardian statues. Its enormous cost was the result of its immense height, with both statues standing at sixty meters tall and constructed from stone and limestone imported from Europe alongside other local materials. Both of the statues would be the tallest buildings in Elysium for centuries and alongside the St Ioannes Monastery on Mount Aithaia would become two of the growing ‘Wonders’ of the New World.

By the turn of the century, an expansionist drive would see colonia being expanded in droves along the southern territories of the frontier between the Empire and the distant barbaroi lands to the south. With a heavy push to settle into the region, the imperial economy wasn’t strong enough to support an overextension of simultaneous establishments of colonia without risking a potential financial crisis. For several years, a bold and risky strategy would be implemented, one that would send the economy into a brief deficit with the hopes that the new settlements would return its investment into the wider empire.

Such a strategy would result in the Empire prioritizing major colonia along its immediate frontier, maintaining the key regions, while settlers would overextend themselves into the frontier to claim the interior lands without imperial support or supplies. Once any major region was settled, imperial attention would turn to the semi-developed villages or cities that would arrive in the region and develop them from there, while repeating the process within relative proximity to mitigate any potential barbaroi incursions. It was an extremely expensive gamble, which should it pay off, would double the territorial gains within a shorter timeframe.

Within the first few years, much of this strategy would begin to pay off as a permanent Elysian presence would start to push towards the southern tribal lands with ferocious speed and settlement, at the cost of pushing the economy into deficit for several years. Such an expansion method, while effective, proved to be far too expensive to maintain and would be scrapped for organized methodical expansion instead.

With its small meager population, the Kykladian settlers would be overwhelmed and outnumbered by the larger Portuguese colonists who would rapidly settle much of the surrounding territory in droves. Despite the strong relationship between Elysium and Portugal, disputes over the archipelago would trouble diplomacy within the nations for quite some time. In the years since re-established contact with the Portuguese, along with recent breakthroughs in European ship designs that would allow them to map the coastline of the great continent to the south, their zeal for exploration would begin to alarm their new Elysian allies. Seeking to prevent the escalation of the matter, something would have to be done.

The Imperial Senate would become wary of unchecked Portuguese expansion within the Kykladies, an important region that would be claimed by both Elysium and the Portuguese due to its immense economic and strategic value. Alexios VI and the Senate would invite Portuguese ambassadors to Elpida to sign a treaty that would restrict Portuguese settlement to the southern continent, barring them from the Kyklades. In return, the demand would be reciprocated. As the Portugese would not be able to form any colonies on the continent of Elysium, the Elysians would neither be able to form their own colonies on the southern continent, which Elysian cartographers would name Arkadia.

Thus, the New World would be divided between the Elysians and Portuguese, north and south. In a gesture of goodwill, Portuguese-flagged vessels would be allowed to resupply in Elysian ports a reasonable fee that was far more affordable than other European vessels. Ambassadors of both nations would conclude their meeting before returning home, anxiously waiting for a response

When the Portuguese returned with their response, an overwhelming majority of the kingdom agreed with the favorable terms. Arkadia would be seen as a far more lucrative region for the fledging colonial power to establish their presence upon. The Treaty of Epidia would be ratified on May 19th 1499. Its signatories would be Emperor Alexios VI of Elysia, King Henrique I of Portugal, Archon Alexios I of Kykladia, and Viceroy Miguel Goncalves of Caraibas. With this treaty, everything would change.

Once taken into effect, the Portuguese colonial administration of Caraibas would prepare their belongings and leave the archipelago, relocating both itself and the population of the colony southward onto a suitable region within Arkadia that already had a Portuguese presence The process of relocation would take until the end of 1499, when families and merchants would leave behind their homes and be moved to the Arkadia. Small towns that had been built since their arrival were left as deserted ghost towns, later to be inhabited and settled by the natives of the island and the stubborn settlers who refused. Caraibas and all of its progress as a fledgling colony would be abandoned, and now given the right to settle the region, Kykladian settlers quickly too off where the Portuguese had left off.

Portugal would remain the empire’s stalwart ally and trading partner, prompting other colonial powers to view them with envy and distrust as Portugal maintained its monopoly on goods from Elysium. Diplomatically, this would alienate the Portuguese from the European sphere of influence for as long as the treaty remained in place. With the riches of Elysium flowing solely into Lisbon, and with the Elysian Empire thriving under its modernization and expansionist efforts, the other European powers would be compelled to think twice before challenging the combined might of their empires.

With the Treaty of Eipida being signed and ratified into effect, Lisbon became the only port approved for foreign trade while also signing into the division between Elysium and Arkadia. Due to its position as the only port in Europe where the exotic Elysian goods arrived, ships from all over Europe would arrive en mass to have a portion of that wealth for themselves. This would concern the Portuguese, as the Treaty of Eipida and the Treaty of Troizen both gave them exclusive trade rights .

The small Portuguese enclave of Alcântara, a walled-off suburb on the outskirts of Prosphorion, would be greatly expanded to accommodate the influx of new merchant families from Portugal to settle. Simply known as the Portuguese quarter of the city, the sizable European community would bring immense wealth to the developing Prosphorion. Within a few years, Alcântara would grow within the confines of its walls and extend outward into the wider city.

As foreign ships arrived in Elysium, the senate would put its foot down on the matter. The treaties would be upheld with Portugal, and foreign merchants would be expelled from Elysium. Some of the merchants, after having arrived from the long journey across the Atlantic, weren’t welcome to stay and refused to leave. This would start a diplomatic incident where some German merchants barricaded themselves, resulting in a standoff between the imperial army and the frustrated merchants that lasted for over a week before the merchants were starved out.

Alexios VI would take to the matter with some aggression, much to the hostility with Europe about having their merchants expelled. The Treaty of Eipida would give Elysia the legal backing to enforce the treaty in whatever matter it pleased. European merchants would leave Elysium and be forced to conduct their trade within Portugal, for as long as the status quo would remain

Within Southern Germany, disapproval of the Catholic Church began to spread as a result of the increasing corruption of monks and clerics within the church. For several decades, discontent began to be spread about the Papacy and the wider Church falling into severe corruption and greed. These voices began to be raised questioning the current principles of the church, and shortly after the turn of the century, these voices would finally be heard. A monk in Munich, long having expressed deep concerns with the corruption of Christendom, would openly declare his discontent with the wider church. This would pave the way towards a reformation of the faith, as voices that had long been silent about the matter started to turn into shouts that the Papacy could no longer ignore.

Through decades of expansion and using its economic potential to act as a furnace for its growth, the Elysian Empire would become recognized as a great power in its own right among the eyes of the world. Despite its meager size, Elysia had a powerful army and navy that could punch about its weight. But its true strength would not lie within its military but through its raw potential.

In generations, Elysia had the potential to make the rest of the world tremble at the sound of their might. The glory of Elysia would soar above the horizons, and the torch of civilization that it had inherited from their ancestral forefathers would illuminate every corner of the world. If given enough time, the world would be theirs for the taking.

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The theme system should protect the borders...

The abandonment of a Roman identity will probably help relations with European powers...

Europe is revealed! I think the most interesting parts of that are that Spain isn't unified, and France and Burgundy have a rivalry (mostly because I'm surprised Burgundy still exists). Everything else seemed normal to me.

Embracing their new identity as Elysians seemed like a natural logical step, especially since the identity of 'Roman' is bastardized by every institution within Europe. Elysia will succeed where the Byzantines had failed.

Iberia tends to struggle in my playthroughs, while everywhere else in Europe does well. Western Europe will be important to look at within the next century coming up.

What fascinates me is that Candar’s borders tell me that the Ottomans must have lost a war at some point. They clearly have struggled, and while I doubt the question would have occurred to the Elysians of this story, I think it probable Byzantium actually could have survived in some form had they stayed.

And go Novgorod! Always like seeing it do well!

I suppose it's for the best that Elysium abandoned its Roman heritage for now, it'd help make them stronger in the long run, especially with the Ottomans there still struggling to become the top dog in their area. Also it's nice to see Novgorod still up and about, would be interesting to see if they get to form Russia in this timeline this time around.

Wooo! Go Novgorod! You can do it! We believe in you!

The Ottomans have struggled even with their insane buffs. Venice and the Mamluks are a lot stronger in 1.36, and with strong neighbors around them, the Turks are probably boxed in. Unless they get lucky, I believe they will have trouble. It doesn't help that during the flight, Constantinople's development was slashed as most of the city was purposely razed.

I've fallen behind, and alas remain so still, but the end of Theophilos and Aida was really well written. Hat's off!

Thank you!