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Baltic Crusades are a go? Or I guess not yet. I wasn't expecting Khazar rump state in Dagestan. Though thinking on it, surprisingly many defeated nomads end up hiding in those mountains, so it makes sense. As a Roman ally and perhaps future Federate, the position is interesting. Derbent is one...

I found a neat map of Oases and Oasis clusters in the Sahara and added some lines appropriate for this timeline: Blue line is the border of the Holy Roman Empire (so the African Kingdom) so far as I understand after the 1st Crusade: Adrar Plateau to Tuat, skimming over Taghazza, then around...

Cause longbows are about social organization, not technology. And God knows both Irish and invaders have a hard time changing Irish society. You know what'd be neat though? Take Tod's Instant Legolas: Get rid of all the fancy rapid fire and sliding parts, and make it a straight crossbow, just...

Well, at least it makes sense for this Ja'far to become the prototypical evil vizier in fiction. The historical Ja'far ibn Yahya never made much sense in the role, and was depicted as a hero in Thousand and One Nights. And I really never understood how Ireland of all places was so good at...

A yugoslavia that includes real life Hungary would be a hell of a thing. If laws aren't eventually passed against Federate merger, even after that whole mess of Africa merging with the Visigoths, it'll probably happen sooner or later simply though royal marriages and male lines dying out. And...

There are funny stories of travelers (from the elite Literati class of course) traversing China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan without knowing a word of any local language, and forced to communicate purely with other Literati by writing Classical Chinese notes back and forth, Classical Chinese being...

If the Irish were really smart, they'd elect Aloysius V High King. The Britons can't complain about electing a foreigner, nor about the suitability of that particular foreigner, nor would there be the humiliation of being technically a vassal to a native Irish High King for their chunk of...

The other thing with Islamic slavery is total misogyny helps with preventing a permanent underclass. An Arab slaver's children with slave women are considered pure Arab after the Umayyads, the female bloodline is completely discounted. So you get things like red haired green eyed Caliphs of...

The Emperors won't like sharing a city with the Senate though. There's a reason they moved to Milan, Ravenna, etc. Eastern Emperors have been made to regret Constantine's clever idea of making a new Senate in his New City ever since. The way I see it, the Aloysians have been trying to turn the...

The Aloysians have learned that the Islamic border needs to be directly held. The Ghassanids certainly never had much luck holding it. The next thing to do with peace and a lot of goodwill built up is probably dealing with Greek autonomy. The Greeks sure can't say the Treveran regime hasn't done...

Well, once the Nile-Red Sea canal silts up again because the central government can't afford maintenance at least. If the Caliphate manages to reunite, their remaining territory can still support plenty of ships, and can bring in ships and wood to support a campaign in the Levant.

Improving the crossbow would be much easier than trying to replicate the longbowman on a larger scale, which nobody in real life ever managed despite the English Longbow's equally decisive successes. Chinese crossbows were much more mechanically efficient than Western crossbows for instance...

The Teutons as the hospitallers is amusing. And I guess the Aloysian distrust of the Stilichians is going to be Egypt's greatest defense for some time. Also, I don't think Baghdad would exist in this timeline. Baghdad's founding was caused by the internal politics of the early Abbasid...

The Chaldeans really aren't looking healthy, with the Romans wanting to wash hands of them, and fighting a civil war in the middle of their revolution. Aloysius I guess isn't hugely ambitious in being willing to concede Egyptian independence albeit without Alexandria. If he already has a red sea...

Certainly, the same deal as the Pelagians got could be offered . . . but the example of the Pelagians also shows that any such deal can only be temporary. Ironically, Muslims and Jews can be offered the same accommodation existing Roman Jews have, but heterodox Christians can't be tolerated to...

Musa was going to be heterodox but going full Taiping Heavenly Kingdom . . . might end up saving the Iraqis actually. Funny thing, the Taiping also practiced speaking in tongues, and it backfired on Hong Xiuquan when some of his vassals also started claiming to be possessed by the Holy Spirit...

The disadvantage of the HRE's decentralized system is getting everyone moving the same direction. The advantage is when everyone is moving the same direction, the level of mobilization is otherwise impossible without early modern levels of bureaucracy and nationalism. It's pretty hilarious...

Pendragon victory disease look to be taking them down the route of the overbearing consort clans so infamous in the Sinosphere. Maybe the Africans will start quietly backing the Irish as revenge.

Hmm, the Skleroi are pardoned . . . and also dying off. Alexandra claiming their properties through her mother for her son is increasingly plausible.

With ATP going on about defeated Stilichians turning to colonization, that's actually remarkably appropriate now combined with the intensified Stilichian/Pendragon rivalry. From Stilicho putting down Claudius Constantine, to the old religious rivalry between Augustinian and Pelagian...