Update 0: 500

## Roman Sunset

In the shadow of Alexander, King of Kings, arose Rome, perhaps the greatest empire the world has yet seen.

Yet Rome almost never happened. It was almost aborted by an invasion of
Spartan military colonists from Magna Graecia in the early third century
 BCE. These Spartan expatriates managed to evict the Etruscans from Rome
 and establish a Spartan kingship over the city, one which lasted a
solid century and a half. But in 143 BCE Rome overthrew its Spartan king
 and installed an Emperor in his place. But a century and a half of
Spartanization does not go away in a flash, and Rome soon had military
dreams of her own, and would soon fulfil them. Within a century and a
half, Rome would conquer an empire stretching from Armorica to Arabia,
through military campaign after military campaign. Greece was
incorporated in the second century. The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was
brought to an unceremonious end by swift Roman conquest in the mid-first
 century. Carthage and her empire, too, were brought under Roman
control, but it was fortunately spared destruction, and the area would
retain a uniquely Punic culture throughout Roman rule.

Alas, through the third century, Rome's expansion ended, replaced by
years of famine, economic crisis, religious strife between Christians,
pagans, and Solar-worshippers, and civil war. It was clear that the
Empire was just too big. In 325, a compromise split the empire into
three, each ruled by a triumvir - one in the South in Carthage, one in
the East in Byzantium, and naturally, one in the West in Rome. And, for a
 time, it worked: stability returned. But the second half of the fourth
century would bring further hammers down upon Rome. The Svear invasions
of the Balkans starting in 356 ended Roman control of Greece and
culminated in Byzantium being sacked in 361, forcing the Eastern Emperor
 to flee to Pergamon. Simultaneously, in 360, Britannia was abandoned,
simply left to its own devices.

What would ultimately nearly bring down Rome for good came in the form
of a united force of Jutes, Saxons, and Franks, who collectively invaded
 northern Italy itself in the mid-fifth century, under the leadership of
 one King Hrothgar - some believe due to being forced from their homes
by Vandal migrations westwards. In any case, by the 460s they were
threatening Rome itself. But all this changed in 476 when the Roman
Senate, supported by followers of the Invincible Sun, overthrew the last
 Emperor, a weak puppet of a regent, and replaced him with an elected
dictator. In a last-ditch move, the Senate raised an army to protect
their city. And perhaps the Sun does indeed shine on Rome; the Romans
stopped the barbarians.

And since then, the frontier across Italy has held firm. Though Northern
 Italy is now forever lost, the new Latin Dictatorship has reexpanded,
retaining influence over Neapolis, Messana, and various Adriatic coastal
 possessions through tributary and puppet Senates. The reinvented state
has entirely devoted itself to Sol Aniketus. Large portions of the
country and its administration are under control of the militarized
Solar Orders, who are ready to fight for the glory of the Invincible Sun
 at a moment's notice.

But the world is forever changed, and some barbarians are, perhaps, no
longer barbarians. The Germans in Northern Italy coopted the old Roman
bureaucracy and infrastructure quite effectively. The Kingdom of Nornidr
 is hardly barbarian at all now - its magnificent capital of Meduseld,
established at the mouth of the Po River, and trade flows freely through
 the harbors of Venehar and Genovtorp. Though it does not have Rome - or
 perhaps because of it - Nornidr today is flourishing in the peace.

Even before 476, Christian missionaries arrived in northern Italy, and
created a completely unintended effect. The Christian tales were simply
incorporated into the old myths, and new faith has emerged: that of the
Allfather. This new faith, its sacraments and beliefs codified and
written into scripture, has spread northwards like wildfire in the last
several decades, accelerated by warlords north of the Fells adapting it
and spreading it by the swordpoint. Two of the most prominent of these
have been the kings of the Goths and the Thuringii, who in the 480s and
490s suddenly and rapidly expanded their domains across wide swathes of
Germany. Many of their soldiers have been granted lands in the newly
conquered territories, and a new feudal class is developing. Now, they
prepare to turn their arms on each other, and Germany appears ready for
an even more prolonged, bloody struggle.

Elsewhere, In the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the Roman legions
from Belgia, the Frisians and Batavians moved in. Though they had
started migrating as early as the third century, finding peace with the
Romans, the situation would turn violent in the fourth century, and the
Friso-Batavians. Some of these Germans would cross the sea to Britain,
ultimately forcing, the Roman withdrawal from the isles in 360.
Friso-Batavia, now in control of a wide swathe of the coast and
possessions across the channel, would develop into an advanced state
society, with deepening divisions between the Etheling nobles, Friling
freedmen, and Laten serfs. While the Allfather is popular here, paganism
 still dominates.

Britain was thrown into chaos after 360, with the Romans leaving and the
 Germans coming simultaneously. Christianity came to the British Isles
for the first time in the fourth century, finding a home first amongst
the Irish. By now, nearly all of Ireland has been Christianized, though
it is still divided, between a number of clan-based petty states who are
 content to spend more time fighting each other than dreaming of any
empire.

In Caledonia, the dispersed clans by 500 have coalesced into a pair of
unified states, roughly divided on religious lines. In the west, the
state of Dal Riata has formed by Irish pagan clans solidifying their
rule over western Caledonia, helped along by pagans successfully
attempting to resist Christianization. This in turn created the impetus
for neighboring Pictland to unite, which on the flipside is very
Christian. Both states are still not centralized, with the clan still
the prominent unit of organization amongst the Celts and Picts. And they
 both turn south to face foreign threats.

One such threat is Yr Hen Ogledd. This unique state is actually a
confederation of monarchs under a singular High King, of the Coeling
line. When the Germans crossed the sea, some broke off from the
Friso-Batavian crown's authority. Some went west, and carved for
themselves little petty kingdoms that are still independent to this day,
 having never been subjugated by the Frisian crown. Others went north,
creating the kingdoms of Bernicia and Deria. But the Germans did not
unite, and the Cumbric Yr Coeling was able to war them and force the
Germans to bend the knee in the 420s and 430s. This became a turning
point in the confederacy's history, and it has continued its expansion
ever since.

Lastly, there is Brython, formed when the rulers of Dumnonia after the
Roman withdrawal expanded their realms gradually throughout the fifth
century into Wales, and by the middle of the century the kingdom had
completely Christianized. Brython is powerful, and it has been some time
 since the last campaign. Its army itches for combat, and there are weak
 German kingdoms to the east ready for conquest, sitting there like fish
 in a barrel.

As all these realms turn on each other, an age of war is now upon
Britain, and perhaps there will be precious little left for the farmers
and builders when the generals and kings are done with the islands.

Armorica has been reclaimed by Celts. But this kingdom of Brittany is
one of the more eclectic post-Roman states, as not only is it ruled by a
 queen, its entire aristocracy and society is matriarchal. Brittany's
monarchy is an elected one, with the new queen elected by the matriarchs
 of all the country's Great Houses. To boot, it has rejected both
Christianity and traditional paganism, in favor of a religion combining
the latter with beliefs of traders from cold lands even further afield -
 the belief in a Drowned Queen who one day shall arise from her oceanic
domain and unleash the powers of the ocean upon the world. This cult of
the Drowned Queen, formed in the mid-fifth century, today has adherents
throughout Gaul, Britain, and even Iberia.

But the light of Rome is not yet extinguished in Aquitania. After the
province was cut off from Rome by the migration of the Germans to
northern Italy in the 450s and 460s, the local provincial governor set
himself up as a King, independent of Rome, but preserving Roman culture.
 Though unlike the Latin Dictatorship, Aquitania is Christian, with an
independent Gallic Church having been established there shortly after
the province's independence was gained. The provincial government has
fairly successfully incorporated the local archbishop into the state,
and has also sponsored missions into neighboring lands. Nevertheless,
Aquitania has suffered from numerous rebellions against an oppressive
landowner class in the 490s.

Now we cross the sea to Carthage, where too the light of Rome stays
burning bright. The Southern Emperor in Carthage, having been spared the
 chaos of barbarian invasions, retained in firm control of all of Roman
Africa, which fast became the most prosperous region in the
Mediterranean. Carthage ultimately reconquered Iberia from the moribund
Western Empire in the 450s when the latter's heartland began to be
threatened. But not long after, Carthage fell into crisis and civil war
between rival imperial claimants. It was during this crisis when a
rebellion broke out in Iberia, spearheaded by numerous Celtiberian
warlords fashioning themselves as kings. It was soon joined by a number
of Carthaginian patricians, led by Bomilcar, a scion of the Barcid
house, Carthage's former rulers, who still wielded political influence
centuries later. Carthage would never retake Iberia, and the rebellion
would establish the independent republic of Ishfania, a confederation
between the Celtiberian subkingdoms and the Punic republican cities,
with an elaborate republican system that continues to be stable to this
day.

To make matters worse, Egypt was lost to an invasion at the hands of the
 Ghassanid Arabs, and not long after, a rebellion of Solar-worshipping
patricians broke Cyrenaica away. Ultimately, the last Southern Emperor
was simply overthrown by annoyed local patricians, and a republic was
established. Carthage of today is a far cry from what it once was, with
much of the state coming under increasingly Punic cultural influence in
the latter fifth century, and now bears few resemblances to the Southern
 Roman Empire. Yet it has solidified its dominance of the Mediterranean
naval and trade spheres, and remains more prosperous than ever.

The Svearii invaded Greece via the Balkans in 350s and 360s and quite
thoroughly made a mess of the place. The Eastern Empire was forced to
retreat from Byzantium to nearby Pergamon after Byzantium was sacked in
361, an event the city has still yet to recover from. But by 370 the
Svearii had retreated to the north by a combination of hardening Greek
resistance and the lack of land in which to settle, and the Svearii
would ultimately settle and remain there to this day. With the East
Romans having been too badly injured to regain control, Greece
fragmented into a collection of city-states, who still formed a loose
alliance to fight against foreign threats. This would change in 376,
when the Avars followed in the Svear footsteps and sacked Thessaloniki.
Alarmed, the Athenian statesmen Anaxemander unified the Greeks under a
common banner, and at the gates of Thebes utterly smashed the Avars.
Anaxemander's alliance solidified into a permanent confederation, with
the Athenians in charge, and quickly expanded via force to control the
Aegean, even unceremoniously conquering the rump Eastern Empire in
Pergamon in 425.

Asia Minor in the post-Roman worl is home to a trio of kingdoms.
Furthest north is Pontus, an ancient hellenized kingdom that in its
current form first gained independence during the Seleucid collapse in
the first century BCE, before drifting in and out of Roman control, at
various times a Roman tributary and client state, before ultimately
regaining full independence in the 360s after the sack of Byzantium. In
the central Anatolian highlands is Galatia, a kingdom of Hellenistic
Celts who had migrated to the Greek world during the fourth century BCE,
 and ultimately found their way to a sedentary, surprisingly peaceful
existence in central Anatolia. And lastly, the surviving Avars, adopting
 Christianity, resettled in Cilicia rather quietly during the late third
 and early fourth centuries, with precious few other places to go.

Back in the Balkans, north of Svearia is home to the Angles, who
migrated there in the mid-fifth century alongside the great migration to
 northern Italy. The Anglic kingdom of Apland, so named for the
country's supposedly rich number of apples in Roman times, is a creation
 of this migration, and controls a wide swathe of land from Dalmatia -
itself home to piracy-loving fisherfolk who are only loosely under any
country's control - all the way north to the Yotvingian frontier. Then
there is Dacia, the shattered ancient country which was reunited in the
third century when the king Ruboreles united the Dacians to repulse a
Scythian incursion. Dacia's powerbase has over the centuries shifted
from the interior to the east and the Euxine coast, and now the interior
 has been repudiated to the status of a march, to protect the
increasingly wealthy country from German incursions.

The final story in the Balkans is that of the Bulgar Khanate. Forced
from Central Asia by the Scythians, the Bulgars migrated south, after
being defeated by the Dacians, to Thracia, where they almost sacked
Thessaloniki before being repulsed by the Hellenes. They have since
managed to settle in Thracia and assimilate the populace, but they are
still regarded as barbarian threats by their neighbors - what does their
 future hold?

## Empires under the Sun

It is said that the city of Babylon is older than the world itself.

In any case, the politicking after Alexander's death in that very city
passed control of its country to one general Seleucus. The chaos meant
that Seleucus established control of a vast empire stretching from Asia
Minor to Parthia. The now-titled Seleucus Nicator built his new capital,
 Seleucia-in-Babylonia, on the bank of the Euphrates near the shore. No
less would do for the newly forged Seleucid Empire.

Seleucid dominance of the Middle East would last almost three centuries,
 controlling a rather large empire from Asia Minor to Bactria, but by
the latter half of the first century BCE it had become utterly despised
by wide numbers of their populace. Particularly in Babylonia, a
sentiment had grown that the Seleucids were driving the old cities to
ruin, and the Seleucid emperors themselves had become infamous for their
 weakness, corruption, and perceived decadence. To add to the bevy of
problems, the people of Babylon had almost entirely embraced
Zoroastrianism, which caused conflicts with Seleucid emperors trying to
enforce a state cult. And thus, Babylon revolted. One Cyrus led the
revolt, leading his men to Seleucia, and in 25 BCE sacked the city and
burnt it to the ground, salting the ashes. Cyrus claimed to be the first
 of the Third Empire, a successor of both the Achaemenid shahenshahs and
 Alexander the Great. Babylon would within the next half century expand
into Syria as well, and over the first and second centuries repulsed
multiple Roman attempts to conquer the area.

With that, the Seleucids were forced to retreat east to Persia, after
which they were quickly conquered by a dynasty from Parthia in the
northeast, who would rule a strong and united Persia. Wars between this
Parthian Empire and the Babylonians throughout the next century were
indecisive. Ultimately, the Parthian Empire fell into decline and
ultimately civil war after 300, allowing Babylon the opportunity to
temporarily gain control of much of Persia. Alas, it would not last, as
in rode the Artaxiad dynasty, a hellenized dynasty from Albania in the
Caucasus, who invaded in the 350s and quickly established an empire of
their own, the so-called Albanian Empire, out of Ecbatana. In
Mesopotamia though, Babylon remains stronger than ever, and the old city
 remains a guiding light to the world as bright as it ever has been. The
 empire has spread Zoroastrianism by law, though open communities of old
 pagans and Christians remain.

The Ghassanid tribe of Arabs moved into Nabataea in the mid-fourth
century, by 360 having established a kingdom there, taking over the city
 of Petra, and having converted to Christianity, fending off occasional
Babylonian and Roman incursions. The collapse of authority after the 361
 sack of Byzantium allowed the Ghassanids to incorporate Palestine into
their kingdom, and by 370, they were in firm control of most of the
Levant. The Ghassanid Kingdom's convenient position allowed it to grow
rather wealthy. During the Carthaginian civil wars of the 460s, the
Ghassanids swiftly moved into Egypt and conquered it. Egypt under the
Ghassanids has become entirely Arabized, with much of the formerly
Hellenized Egyptian population having assimilated or been displaced in
the second half of the fifth century. In fact, the Ghassanid Kingdom has
 become the de facto heartland of Christianity.

Further south lies the Nubian kingdom of Alodia, of which there is
little to speak of - its people are predominantly Christian, but the
state only truly exists as the intermediary between the Ghassanid
Kingdom and the great southern realm of Aksum. The Ethiopians of Aksum
have adopted Judaism through a mixture of conversions and migrations of
Jewish tribes into Ethiopia, with the ruling class largely converting
during the mid-fourth century. Aksum's naval power has enabled to
achieve dominance of the Red Sea, and - perhaps more importantly - the
wealth of the Egypt-India trade which flows through it. Aksum managed to
 expand into the Arabian peninsula with the conquest of Sheba in the
fifth century, and has begun to influence the Arab tribes of the
surrounding regions. The Arab tribes remain quite quiet,

On the other side of Africa is the home of the rising Sao civilization.
Around Lake Chad and the Chari River the Sao city-states have in the
last few centuries arisen a number of magnificent walled city-states,
led by divine kings. The fifth century saw them more or less unite under
 the leadership of the city of Pel Ma 'ir, which has subjugated most of
the other Sao city-states into the first all-encompassing Sao polity -
the wealth of the Sao is quite large, and they are militarily powerful.
Further west is Gao, a more or less city-state whose wealth is largely
based on the yet-small but burgeoning trans-Sahara trade, and the Ghana
Empire, an expansionist state similarly garnering great wealth, whose
military strength has helped it arise from a tribal collection to a
burgeoning empire in the course of just a century.

Along the east coast of Africa, south of a number of Azanian trade
city-states who have largely adopted Christianity and are mostly
insignificant in the greater geopolitical picture, lies Yibram. This
realm is inhabited by the decendents of Jewish Yibri Somali tribes who
migrated, as well as some Bantu peoples who have converted to Judaism
and assimilated. The unique branch of Judaism formed here, syncretized
with the traditional African beliefs, is all-important - it is the
religious leaders who choose Yibram's kings. It has evolved into an
Indian Ocean trade power, with its impressive merchant fleet carrying as
 far as Nusantara. Recently, it has begun to incorporate the island of
Madagascar - something which has not exactly been amiable to the
Malagasy natives, some of whom have banded together under the leadership
 of a "Feather King" in the center of the island.

Next we travel to the other side of the world, wherein lies Scythia.
Once just a collection of nomadic tribes in the steppe north of the
Pontus Euxinus, Scythia over the past few centuries, with the arrival of
 a wave of hellenization, modernized and expanded north and east,
unifying all of the land known by some geographers as Rus under one
polity. It is now a rather cosmopolitan yet still quite unified realm,
governed through an elaborate feudal system of satraps who provide
tribute to the central Koloksai and alliances with local tribes near the
 frontiers. The extension of the Silk Road to Scythia has also made the
empire rich through trade wealth.

Scythian expansion has forced numerous other tribes out of their homes.
Aside from the previously mentioned Bulgars, these include the Balts,
many of whom have migrated to new lands in the southwest, where they
interacted with the Germans, settled down, and by the end of the fifth
century had established a permanent kingdom - Yotvingia. Another was the
 Uar, known in some Greek sources as the Hephthalites and in Persian and
 Eastern sources as the Hunas. Scythian campaigning forced them into
their current lands east of the Hyrcanian Ocean. But their current lands
 are just north of the great Albanian Empire. This could either be a
terrible curse - or, just perhaps, a great blessing, as the great wealth
 of Persia has caught the eye of more than one Uar leader. East of the
Uar are the Uyghurs, who were not forced there by the Scythians, but
rather migrated there from the east into Ferghana and Sogdiana. The
Uyghurs have adopted Manichaeism, which has been spread to them from its
 bases in central Asia.

Then, there is Bactria. Controlling the valley of the Oxus, the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom has been overrun multiple times by nomadic
invaders in the first and second centuries, but has yet persevered, with
 numerous of said invaders having simply been settled, hellenized, and
incorporated into Bactrian society quite seamlessly. And thanks to its
fortunate position along the Silk Road, enhanced thanks to the recent
incorporation of the city of Marakanda into the Bactrian kingdom,
Bactria stands prepared to grow rich. Still, the kingdom will likely
always be threatened by nomads at its borders.

And lastly, there is the eastermost Hellenic kingdom, Taxila. This is
the land of the Indo-Greeks, who recreated Alexander's conquest of
India, after a fashion, by invading from Bactria in the second century
during the ultimate fall of the Maurya dynasty, and while the
Indo-Greeks have not quite expanded, they have retained their control of
 the Punjab despite multiple attempts at invasion, and the country has
prospered. The fifth century saw the unification of the Indo-Greeks by
the king of Taxila, and the resulting kingdom is now richer than ever,
with cities such as Bucephala, Alexandria-on-the-Indus, and naturally,
Taxila itself, all flourishing. It was here that Greco-influenced, or
Yona Buddhism first established itself in the Maurya period, before
spreading west through the steppes to become the dominant religion of
Bactria and a popular religion as far west as Hellas.

The glories of Hindustan await.

## Asian Sunrise

Just as Alexander was in his death throes in Babylon, in faraway
Pataliputra, another great shift would occur. The corrupt Nanda dynasty
of Magadha was overthrown by the forces of an obscure scion known to the
 Greeks as Sandracottus - or, to Indians, Chandragupta Maurya. While
Chandragupta would establish the empire, it was not under him that it
would truly flower - but rather, under his grandson, Asoka, who would
convert to Buddhism and fuel Buddhism's spread, and create an advanced
economy and administration that made India perhaps the richest country
on the face of the Earth. The Maurya Empire would last for centuries,
surviving a period turmoil in the second and first centuries BCE, and
its control of the Khyber Pass would mean that few invaders would gain
access to India - something which would last until the late first
century CE, before the Kushan invasions finally pushed the Mauryas from
the Punjab. The Maurya state would limp through into the second century
before finally collapsing.

Those aforementioned Kushans, known as Yuezhi to the Chinese, would
through a series of victories and defeats, and being in turn ousted from
 the Punjab by Greco-Bactrian invaders in the second centurie, make
their way south to the lower Indus valley by the third century, where
they established realms of their own - a few of their warlords declared
themselves kshatrapas, or satraps. Those Western Kshatrapas remain
independent to this day, but they have never unified, and they are still
 rather poor - it may be just a matter of time before a neighboring
state eats them away.

North India remained largely divided for another three hundred years,
save for a number of short-lived Buddhist dynasties based in Magadha,
such as the third-century Mahindas and the fourth-century Kanvas, none
of which were able to permanently expand their control over the majority
 of the Gangetic plain. That is, until the 440s, with the birth of the
Sundara dynasty in Magadha, centered around the great city of
Pataliputra. In the 480s, under the ruler Ram Sundara, the Sundaras
rapidly expanded to capture Indrapura and establish full control over
the Gangetic plain. Magadha has once again emerged as the dominant North
 Indian power - whether they will managed to stay that way is another
question entirely.

To the east are the kingdoms of Kalinga and Kamarupa, both Buddhist
kingdoms, and both moderate powers that nevertheless potential powers.
Kalinga has retained its control over the eastern coast of India in the
entire time since the Maurya withdrawal, and though it has not expanded
much since then, it has remained independent. Kamarupa is a kingdom of
Tai peoples from the upper Brahmaputra valley who swept into Bengal in
the 470s and 480s and conquered it, establishing their presence on the
coast. Still, a series of rebellions against Kamarupa in the 490s has
shown weakness in Kamarupa's control of the area.

In stark contrast to the warfare of the north, Southern India is in the
midst of a veritable cultural golden age, that began around 470 and has
shown no signs of slowing down. The Tamil Chera dynasty's ascension in
the fifth century, following the subjugation of the rival Pandya and
Chola dynasties after a tripartite clash over Tamilakam for centuries,
has led to a flurry of trade wealth entering Southern India, and a
corresponding flourishing in the arts and architecture. Thanjavur, the
grand city that is the Chera capital, is one of the most magnificent
cities on Earth. To the north is the grand Kannadiga Chalukya dynasty,
which has established firm control over a wide swathe of central India.
The Chalukya dynasty has become renowned for its poetry and the
magnificent temples it has built during its reign. Neighboring Malwa is a
 more minor state that arose in the fourth century, and has ebbed and
flowed with the tides of time. It is currently independent. Hindus,
Jains, and Buddhists coexist in these parts of India, and in the coast
of the southwest, Christian communities have begun to spread.

Across the sea, Nusantara is under the dominance of the kingdom of
Tarumangara, a state with a rather unique culture. This heavily
caste-based society, dominated equally by female theologian-rulers and
male soldiery and bureaucracy, has developed in a kingdom that arose in
Java in the mid-fourth century. With Tamil cultural influences and
trade, by the mid-fifth century Tarumangara had begun to expand beyond
Java, and by now has developed into a naval empire that spans most of
the archipelago.

In Burma, civilization has begun to flourish, with the rise of the Pyu
city-states in the fourth and fifth centuries. The city-states, much in
the vein of the city-states of Greek antiquity, squabble and fight
amongst each other, but their cultural and economic productivity cannot
be understated. So far none of the city-states has especially achieved
any form of dominance over the others, but tha tmay soon change.

To the southeast are two states, Kamboja and Champa. Both of these are
Hindu, thanks to influence from India, especially the Tamil trading
states, over the last few centuries. Yet there has also been a
significant Chinese influence, especially in Champa. Kamboja is the
latest in a succession of kingdoms to rule over the Khmer people - none
have so far lasted for very long, or made a significant impact, but
perhaps this one will be different? Champa is a unified kingdom which
has ruled the coast from its capital of Indrapura since the time of the
Han Dynasty, in one form or another.

Speaking of said Han dynasty, after years of trials and tribulations it
would finally collapse in the early late second century, replaced by the
 chaotic Three Kingdoms period, with the kingdoms of Wu, Shu, and Wei
clashing for control. This lasted just under a century, with Wei
emerging victorious. It appeared that unity had returned to China -
alas, it was not to be. A coup in 265 resulted in Wei being overthrown
and the formation of a short-lived Jin dynasty, which would only last a
half century until another period of civil war, the War of the Eight
Princes, broke out in the 310s. Ultimately, the Jin dynasty was ousted.
The civil war would continue for several more years, until Wang Jong,
the former Jin grand commander, with the support of the peasantry
himself overthrow the last Jin claimant and declared himself Emperor,
the first of the Sung dynasty. The Sung finally brought peace to the
country, though it remained unable to reconquer the north from invaders,
 and had largely pressured programs of land redistribution to the
peasants at the expense of the upper classes. The dynasty almost fell in
 420 thanks to a coup by the Sung chancellor, but a cousin of the
imperial family escaped and led a peasant rebellion, ending the
interregnum in 425. The Sung dynasty has since remained prosperous
rulers of a united China, or at least southern China.

Alas, the Sung have never been able to retake the north - ruled by a
succession of nomads from the north since Xiongnu invasions during the
late Three Kingdoms period. First the Xiongnu, then the Xianbei, then
the Khitans, then, now, the Rouran. In the 470s, one chieftain, Guran,
born under an eclipse, united a number of warring Altaic tribes,
supposedly with divine providence. He was crowned Gur Khan, and the
Rouran stormed into northern China, which was then under the rule of the
 Khitan Liao dynasty. The Rouran by 485 had conquered up to the Yellow
River, and with dominance over northern China, have begun to settle. The
 neighboring Ashina Turks and the Syanbi - the remnants of the
once-proud people known in China as the Xianbei - have been reduced to
poor little realms in the northeast.

Those Khitans, too, did settle, in west-central China, forming the Liao
dynasty in the fourth century. Once controlling the majority of northern
 China, the Rouran invasion and Sung campaigns have reduced the Khitans
to a small kingdom whose only relief is its partial control of the Silk
Road, and whose days largely seem quite numbered. To the west are the
Tarim Basin city-states, oasis towns such as Kashgar and Yarkand and
Khotan and Kuqa who have grown opulently wealthy from that very same
trade.

The Korean peninsula is divided between the northern Jin state -
unrelated to the Jin dynasty of China, this was established by Jurchen
invaders in the fifth century who have yet to assimilate into Korean
culture - and the three kingdoms of Baekje, Daemahan, and Silla in the
south. And across the sea in Japan, the land of the rising sun, has
arisen the Hirajima Kingdom. Hirajima's exact origins are actually
somewhat disputed and mysterious, but what is more important is
Hirajima's solid control of a flourishing Japan through an advanced
bureaucratic system.

## Stats Bonuses

Friso-Batavian administration is much improved thanks to its
crown-funded survey of languages in its realm. (Friso-Batavia: +Rural
income)

Nornidr's southern frontier is well-protected by a defensive line,
consisting of multiple signal towers, each within sight range of each
other. (Nornidr: +Brandgard, +Army development)

Administrative improvements in the Latin Dictatorship, aided by the work
 of the Solar Orders, have enabled running the country and its
tributaries much easier. (Latin Tributary States: +Sol Aniketus numbers)

In 500, with the death of King Lesbostes, the Dacian electors met to
crown a new king. It went off quite smoothly, with a new King Bureole
being elected with much celebration. (Dacia: +Stability)

Carthage's provincial administrative system has greatly eased the burden
 of running such a vast country, with efficient tax collection systems,
especially in the countryside. (Carthage: +Rural income)

From Ireland to Cathay, Babylon's cities are widely considered some of
the most glorious to ever grace the earth. Babylon itself is home to
over a million souls. (Babylon: +Urban income)

A vast Yibri trade fleet arrived in Tarumangara in 497-498, and returned
 to Yibram with some exquisite and rare luxury goods from the far-off
isles. Yibri traders continue to ply distant routes. (Yibram: +Trade
income)

One of the stranger episodes in recent Japanese memory occurred in 498
when the Hirajima king had a shrine erected to a strange culinary item, a
 fried dumpling known as the "samosa" that he had grown quite the liking
 to, apparently some sort of import brought to Japan by traders from
Tarumangara. (Hirajama: +Grand Samosa Shrine)