Update 1: 525

## Europe

From Dal Riata in the 510s, a number of raiders sailed forth to bring
their wrath upon neighboring Pictland. The Irishmen ravaged Pictland,
though a series of sporadic raids that the Picts were utterly inept at
repulsing, following some inconclusive battles between Pictish soldiers
and the raiders, and a few unsuccessful retaliatory raids did little to
deter the Dal Riata, and in fact helped solve interclan conflicts as the
 clans united to help drive the Picts out. In fact, the raids have been
especially disruptive to Christian missionary activities, as a few Picts
 have begun to realize that converting away from Christianity will save
them from the raids. Also in Dal Riata was founded the Knights of
Fianna, a “holy order” styled surprisingly similar to one of the Latin
Solar Orders, its membership open to any pagan willing to defend against
 the Christian or Drowned Goddess foreigners. The Knights are a common
sight in Dal Riata these days.

(Dal Riata: -1 Infantry Company, +Loot)
(Pictland: -1 Infantry Company, -Stability)

But in neighboring Ireland, the story was quite different. The process
of Christianization was almost entirely finished in Ireland in the early
 sixth century, the last pagan clans wiped out through warfare in the
510s. The state of Connacht in the west rose in power in this period, at
 the expense of Desmond in the south, which suffered a number of
catastrophic succession disputes that led to a number of subclans in the
 center of the island breaking off. Despite this, the elimination of
many of the last pagan holdouts has marked an end to much of the
religious-driven tension on the island.

(Irish Petty States: +Stability)

Britain was surprisingly peaceful through this period. Yr Henn Ogledd
appeared to turn inwards, focusing on retaining the peace. Between 512
and 518, neighboring Brython launched a series of conquests to the east,
 to incorporate some of the German kingdoms to the east back under
native Brythonic rule. Many of the Germans were displaced by the
Brythons, replaced by Brythonic military colonists, who have quickly
become a major landowning class in the newly taken territories. In
addition, closer to home Brython has begun efforts at rebuilding the
wreckage of some of the Roman-era roads which cross it, in hopes of
easing transportation.

(Brython: -1 Infantry Company)
(Germano-British Petty States: -2 Infantry Companies)

The Brythonic conquests alarmed neighboring Friso-Batavia, which began
further fortifying the Brythonic frontier. Some of these improvements
were a series of beacons that lined the frontier in Britain, a similar
system which was installed along the country’s eastern frontier, which
have served as a quite effective tool for border watchguards – so far it
 has helped protect against a number of sporadic raids.

All around the English Channel, Breton trade missions in particular,
especially to Friso-Batavia, began to link the somewhat disparate
countries of the region together, leading to something of an economic
boom in these countries’ ports. They have also brought the Drowned Queen
 to more and more loyal venerators.

(Brython, Brittany, Friso-Batavia: +Economy Development)

Alemannia eschewed war in these years, in favor of tying its newfound
large and somewhat diverse realm together. The Alemanni king hired Latin
 engineers to supervise the construction of a large harbor at the port
city of Arburg, Alemannia’s sole Mediterranean possession at the mouth
of the Ryneburn, which it also spared no expense fortifying. In
addition, the Alemanni king promoted pluralistic policies of religious
tolerance, of both the Christians and Allfatherists in the country,
although perhaps he saw no other means to, without alienating half the
country’s people – and, more importantly, aristocracy – by converting to
 one or the other. With a peace-focused king for once,

(Alemannia: +Stability)

In neighboring Aquitania, King Syragius, who ascended the throne in 510,
 instantly showed himself to be a devout Christian of the Gallic school,
 and instantly set about ensuring that everyone else in the country was
as devout as he. First was to eliminate the last traces of paganism in
the country. This was accomplished by the swordpoint, when proper
Christian soldiers rode into the parts of the countryside where pagans
still resided, and quite often forced, under pain of death. Left alone
were adherents of the Drowned Queen and some others, especially in
foreign quarters of Burdigala, a move perhaps necessary to avoid the ire
 of neighboring countries. But with harsh tactics, Syragius has further
united Aquitania – perhaps it may yet prosper.

(Aquitania: +Stability, -2 Infantry Companies)

Germany was dominated by a cycle of warfare between the Goths and the
Thuringians despite the two states’ collective Allfatherism. The simple
fact was that, with the death of the Gothic king in 505, the Thuringians
 saw an opportunity to strike, and grab valuable land from their
neighbors. But, as it would work out, the situation did not exactly turn
 out that way. The Goths stayed well away from the Thuringian army and
regrouped, sending only small warbands to weaken the Thuringians.
Eventually, when the Thuringians were sufficiently weakened, the Goths
struck back, defeated their army, and drove them off. Another war
erupted a decade later, only this time, the Goths managed to negotiate a
 temporary alliance with the Anglic king of Apland, who attacked the
Thuringians from the southeast and profited nicely from their fall. By
516, Thuringia had been entirely subjugated by both countries. Most of
the Thuringians have been incorporated into the ever-growing Gothic
Kingdom. In Apland itself, Solar missionaries arrived in the 510s, and
began to proselytize to some success there.

(Goths: -4 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies)
(Apland: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)

(Thuringia: -5 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

The cold northlands of Europe were historically completely isolated from
 the rest of the continent. There was little there worth going for, so
few Greeks and few Romans ventured there. But that has started to
change. It had already begun in the fourth and fifth centuries, with the
 evolution of the Eldrachaa state. The Eldrachaa had developed a rather
unique culture. Since the concept of a family as it exists elsewhere is
completely alien to the Eldrachaa, children are only tracked through
their mother’s line, and as such inheritance is matriarchal. Somewhat
like the people of Nusantara on the other side of the globe, women are
considered fit for faith, while men are considered fit for war, and the
two genders stick to their respective roles. The entire state has a very
 communal quality to it, through the klennech system of village-level
communes, though at the top it is still governed by a monarchy. It was
with the adoption of the Allfather in the last quarter-century that the
Eldrachaa truly centralized, and rules the north of Europe in 525.

To the east, another nation has arisen, in the narrow lands along the
Baltic shore. The land of the Samojards has a history stretching back
almost four centuries, to when in the late second century one Samojard
woman named Selde had a vision of a god named Fatár telling her that the
 Samojards’ migration south alongside the Visigoths had been wrong, and
so Selde led some of the Samojards back to their homelands on the Baltic
 coast, and settled a city, Trévoulld. Over the next three hundred
years, the Samojard realm would expand, then break up amidst a mess of
political intrigue, before in the last quarter century it reunited once
more. Samojardia has already defeated the Yotvingians in a number of
battles fought in the 520s, and it looks for expansion.

Unfortunately for some, the Eldrachaa expansion across the strait and
the subsequent conquests of this land, in concert with the Samojard
expansion into the land, meant that the people who had been living there
 rather peacefully for roughly a century beforehand were forced out or
subjugated as Eldrachaa colonists arrived following the conquerors.
While many would assimilate into the Eldrachaa or Samojard polites, many
 others, left with little chance of a livelihood, simply packed into
longships and departed for new prospects abroad.

The Britons who spotted their boats off their eastern shore first would
soon know them by one name, one that would strike terror in their
hearts.

Vandals.

In 515, a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, off the east coast of
Britain, was savagely raided and sacked by mysterious “boat-people” from
 the east. In the following decade, a number of other coastal villages
and monasteries would suffer similar fates. Even as stories, most of
Britain has yet to bear any witness to these strange foreigners. But,
indeed, that is the key word – yet.

The remaining Vandal communities and chiefdoms in the narrow lands
between Eldrachaa, the Samojards, and Friso-Batavia continue to
nevertheless fiercely resist subjugation, though their own fractional
divisions mean that this is little more than a slow losing struggle.
Meanwhile, Frisobatavian travelers report that warbands of tens of
thousands of Vandals are assembling, with tales of lands of great wealth
 abroad, ready to leave their dying homeland for greener pastures.

The Scythians sent an envoy to Yotvingia, demanding a hefty amount in
tribute, in exchange for Scythia leaving the Yotvingians alone. Knowing
that if they fought, even with Dacian help, the Yotvingians could not
last long and would more likely than not all be rounded up and sold into
 slavery, the Yotvingian king simply chose to pay the tribute, a
decision that led to another round of unrest, with many tribal leaders
now questioning the King’s authority. Outside Yotvingia, further
attempts by the Scythians to advance down the Baltic coast were repulsed
 by Baltic tribes or the Samojards, though a Scythian military group did
 establish a trading post on the island of Gotland, which has mostly
acted as a hub for Baltic slave traders.

(Yotvingia: -Stability)

But there is another issue. Scythia may be beginning to once again
suffer from instability. With the army caught up in conflicts in the
Caucasus, after the late 510s much of the north of the country began to
suffer from increased unrest amongst local tribes. This would not have
been a normal situation, but it was inflamed by some Balts being forced
to migrate east into Scythian lands by the rise of the Samojards as a
unifying force along the Baltic coast in the late fifth and early sixth
centuries. How Scythia will handle this remains to be seen, but the
might of Scythia remains completely undoubtable for now.

(Scythia: -Stability)

To the south, the Dacians remained ever-concerned about Scythian
expansionism, especially after the incident with the Yotvingians, and as
 such, the Dacian crown spent a good deal of resources fortifying their
province of Dacia Exterior, constructing a number of fortifications
throughout that province’s countryside. In 512, on royal orders, a
library was founded in the Dacian capital, Thermi-Davia.

(Dacia: +Culture Development)

The Kingdom of Svearia made efforts to centralize its administration and
 begin creating a permanent, advanced state that did not merely exist
because its army told it to. So, the King set about doing this. First
was to subjugate the loosely governed Dalmatian islands and their rogue
fisherfolk inhabitants, which was done relatively quickly and without
displacing too many of the inhabitants, though with some amount of
bloodshed. With the help of military colonists who were granted large
parcels of land in specific areas, with personal authority over villages
 and so forth in their locales, Svearia soon created a loyal system of
control through their possessions. The Svearian crown also chartered the
 creation of a few Solar Orders to help manage the territory and
convince heathens to praise the Sun, though these orders are so far
completely independent of Rome.

(Svearia: -1 Infantry Company, -1 Squadron, +Stability, +Culture Development)

The Bulgar Khanate has begun to suffer. While at one point it may have
been impressive and a force to be reckoned with, it has begun to suffer
under the weight of numerous succession crises, as with the increasingly
 frequent deaths of every khan, multiple others rise up attempting to
claim the leadership of the Khanate, and internal politics has begun to
overwhelm external matters in importance in the Khanate. Meanwhile,
Solar Faithful continue to rapidly spread their own faith in these
lands. It is not too late to reverse this process, but the Khanate looks
 increasingly weak as of 525.

(Bulgas: -2 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)

## The Carthaginian Wars

The early sixth century saw the Mediterranean flare up into a war, when
in 508 the Carthaginians launched an attack in Sicilia, placing Messana
under siege, and simultaneously on Sardinia, pushing the Latins off the
island entirely.

At first, the Carthaginian navy was able to hold its own. The Latin
fleet had been separated from that being provided by their tributaries,
and Carthage was able to strike, and cause heavy damage, including the
capture of a number of the Latin ships – this alone was perhaps what
prevented the Latins from landing. But when the tributaries’ fleet
arrived, and regrouped with the main Latin fleet, and joined by their
Cyrenaican allies, the added power was enough to hold off the
Carthaginians long enough to land additional soldiers on Sicily, where
the combined power of the Latins and their tributaries was enough to
rout the Carthaginians and relieve Messana, and gradually in a series of
 battles and sieges fought between 509 and 512, drove the Carthaginians
from Sicilia. In 512, the last Carthaginians on Sicilia chose to retreat
 to Africa rather than face death.

Simultaneously, the bulk of the Carthaginian military preoccupied with
fending back the in the east, this opened up an opportunity for another
power to strike. In 509, King Snorri of Nornidr passed away. His
teenaged successor, King Brand, in the fortnight of his coronation saw a
 comet shoot across the sky, and took it as an omen for war. First
taking Corsica, or Thrallmark, Brand proceeded to Baleares, but was
unable to get past the Carthaginian fleet guarding the isles, so he
proceeded to Iberia, and swiftly his men conquered it from its light
defenders. Ultimately, the outmatched and outnumbered Carthaginians
simply chose to retreat from Iberia altogether rather than have to deal
with the overwhelming force – though Brand in 512 suffered a wound at
the point of a knife, and took it as a sign that his conquests were
over. Simultaneously, in 510, the Cyrenaicans launched an attack on
Tripolitania, attempting. Entering 511, things looked quite grim for
Carthage.

But the situation did improve. The Carthaginians regrouped with
Tripolitania’s beleaguered defenders south of the city of Carthage and
had pushed the Cyrenaicans back by 513, retaking Tripolitania and
restoring the pre-war frontier, which continues to hold to this day. The
 Carthaginian navy remained supreme, having protected the Baleares,
Sardinia, and the African coast, and continuing to do so.

The wars, or at least this phase of them, had been solidly concluded by
515, though technically no formal peace was ever agreed upon and a state
 of hostility continues to this day – perhaps these wars, as they were,
are not yet over.

(Nornidr: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -2 Squadrons, +Loot)
(Latin Dictatorship: -4 Infantry Companies, -2 Siege Trains, -7 Squadrons, +Navy Development)
(Latin Tributaries: -4 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -5 Squadrons, +Navy Development)
(Cyrenaica: -2 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -3 Squadrons, -1 Siege Train)

(Carthage: -4 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies, -1 Siege Train, -6 Squadrons, +1 Navy Development)

Nearby, Ishfania watched this entire sequence of events with reserved
interest. In 501, Ishafanian and Carthaginian officials had signed a
treaty recognizing a permanent peace at the current borders, in exchange
 for unhindered Mediterranean access for the Ishfanians. In the ensuing
years, Ishfanian military colonists began to settle the frontier, in the
 hopes of creating a group of veterans who would be able to be quickly
raised in event of war. Ishfania, in contrast to the chaos in the
Mediterranean, remained prosperous, and in the countryside, Christianity
 continued to spread at the expense of Solar faithful.

When Nornidr assumed control of Iberia, or Ispanland, they quickly set
about altering the landscape of the region. Many of the native Hispanics
 were captured and sold into slavery, replaced by Nording colonists.
Aside from the slaves taken by Nording soldiers, large numbers of slaves
 from Iberia would thus proliferate through the Mediterranean and
northern trade routes, as far north as Britain and Friso-Batavia, often
arbitrated by Breton merchants – and the slaves brought their faith in
Juno and local disruptions wherever they went. Many wound up in
Aquitania, where a sort of Roman-era slavery began to grow once more.
Others would wind up as cheap labor for military colonists. In the 520s,
 the arrival of these slaves would cause some number of ethnic
disruption in their destination lands. In addition, King Brand divided
Ispanland into six jarlings, each distributed to a loyal friend.

(Nornidr, Aquitania, Alemannia, Gothic Kingdom: -Stability)

Closer to Meduseld, a fortress, known as “Helmsdeep,” was erected in the
 Fells, in the last years of King Snorri’s reign. This was to serve as
the centerpiece of Nornidr’s defenses should the kingdom ever fall to
invasion. Snorri also started the construction of a vast shipyard in the
 swamps south of Meduseld, the Skiprgord, but died not long after –
Snorri’s successor King Brand would finish it. Following the conquest of
 Ispanland, to keep his now-vast-expanded realm tied together, Brand
also had a courier system established. The history of Nornidr in this
time is known to us in great detail largely thanks to the work of a
huscarl named Ivar Nimelung, whose son was one of the first Ispanlandic
jarls.

(Nornidr: +Navy Development)

Sicilia was incorporated directly under the administration of the Roman
senate. In the vicinity of Rome itself, following the conquest of
Sicilia, work began on a great Temple to Sol in 522, a temple meant to
eclipse even the fabled Pyramids of Egypt in size and scope. A number of
 Solar Legions began working on the temple’s construction, though as of
525 construction is still ongoing. In addition, the Senate approved
funds for the improvement of harbors throughout Latiniki.

Carthage would actually recover somewhat from the war, pushing the
frontier of the realm southwards into the lands of the Garmantes and
Numidians, and increasing trade with them as well as across the Sahara
softened the impact of the loss of Iberia. Construction began on a grand
 temple to Juno in the city of Carthage itself, though this was not yet
finished as of 525.

Nevertheless, through the whole conflict, the normally smoothly flowing
western Mediterranean trade routes suffered quite greatly, affecting all
 the nations involved. This, coupled with an upsurge in piracy in the
Eastern Mediterranean, meant a sharp decline in trade.

## West Africa

On the other side of the Sahara, there was little of note that occurred –
 the news brought by caravans across the sands was not of wars of great
conquests, but of entirely normal events. Ghana continued to grow in
wealth, the neighboring Kingdom of Gao continued its expansion upriver,
subjugating a number of local chiefdoms, with only a small amount of
bloodshed. In the east, Pel Ma ‘ir remained the arbiter of the Sao
confederacy, which suffered no shortage of internal politicking as
recorded in the steles of the period, but nonetheless remained a united
polity, and in much the same state as it had been in a quarter century
earlier.

(Gao: -1 Infantry Company)

## Hellas, Asia Minor, the Levant, Arabia, and the Erythraean Shore

The Confederacy of Hellas in this time came under the leadership of the
tyrant Pythoras, elected in 496 and considered by many a new and
decisive man who would increase his office’s power, permanently – for
better or worse. One of Pythoras’s first acts was to refurbish and
revitalize the anemic Academies in the Confederacy’s capital of Athens,
where the great philosophers and mathematicians and tacticians of the
day will reside and teach, under perpetual patronage of the Tyrant –
this has firmly established Athens as one of two major centers of
western philosophy in the sixth century, the other being Rome.
Pythoras’s other major act was to construct a truly magnificent harbor
in Rhodes, to act as a staging point for the Confederacy’s fleets and
for Eastern Mediterranean traders, especially those coming from Egypt
and the Levant. These great projects are considered a show of the
office’s potential power that could be quite dangerous in a certain
man’s hands, but they are impressive enough that even Pythoras’s
staunchest opponents agree that there’s something to be gained here.

(Hellas: +Culture Development, +Economy Development)

Not long after 500, Babylon sent envoys to the Anatolian realms of
Avaria, Galatia, and Pontus, demanding immediate capitulation of all
three into the Babylonian orbit. Unsurprisingly, the Anatolian realms
outright refused. Perhaps it would have ended there, if the good
Christian king of Pontus had not flown into a rage and ordered the
Babylonian envoy’s head cut off and sent back to Babylon on a pike. The
Babylonians were rightfully quite annoyed, and not long after their
armies marched straight into Pontus, handily defeating the Pontic army
and subjugating the country quickly and efficiently. While the Galatians
 promised the Pontics assistance and forged a formal alliance, the
Galatians could do little before the Pontics were destroyed, and at that
 point, the Galatians decided to retreat back into their hills and hide.
 They did launch a few raids into Pontus while the Babylonian armies
were largely in Persia, but mostly their forces were repulsed.

(Babylon: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)

(Pontus: -6 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Galatia: -2 Infantry Companies, +Loot)

Avaria escaped the Babylonians’ wrath, perhaps because they built closer
 ties with the Solar center in Rome. In 505, with funds from Rome,
Avaria’s first Solar Order was officially inducted and endorsed by the
Avar king. Since then, generously funded by the Avar crown, the Avar
order has gone around thoroughly converting Avaria’s pagans, and to a
lesser extent Christians, to accept the true grace of the Sun.
Simultaneously however, the Avarian king found himself courted by
Hellenic merchants.

The Ghassanid Kingdom remained largely peaceful and quiet throughout
this time. The prosperity that had come to it in the course of the fifth
 century would continue into the first decades of the sixth. There was
great fanfare in Jerusalem, for a wedding between the crown prince
Jabalah IV ibn al-Harith and a princess of Alodia, thus tying the two
countries forever together. At the same time in Jerusalem, even as the
Ghassanid King al-Harith IV ibn Hijr was a devout Christian, he had
constructed upon the Temple Mount a grand “Temple of the Lord,” which
was not just for Christian worship, but for the Kingdom’s many Jews,
too, and of a plurality of other faiths – and on royal orders, access
was allowed for all the kingdom’s people, rich or poor. While this has
annoyed some of the more devout Christian aristocrats in the Kingdom, it
 is nonetheless a highly impressive feat by all accounts. Money was also
 spent on improving the road network, and a brand-new road was paved
linking the cities of Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Aqaba.

(Ghassanid Kingdom: -Stability, +Culture Development)

Alodia remained in its place in Nubia, content with its own prosperity.
Its major investment in these years was the construction of a great new
capital city at Dongola, at the bend of the Nile, on the orders of its
quite devout king. This city was dedicated in its place to God, and at
its heart, next to the capital, was erected a great church for all the
city’s people to converge upon. More importantly however, Dongola was to
 serve as a market nexus for the Alodian kingdom.

(Alodia: +Economy Development)

Similarly, Aksum enjoyed these years of peace along the Red Sea shore.
The Aksumites spent a great deal of money expanding and upgrading the
port infrastructure in the great trade city of Aden, not only bridging
their control of both the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, but also – as is
natural with these sorts of things – helping to draw in significantly
more trade wealth. Aksum can thus continue to draw in an ever-growing
quantity of precious metals, spices, and slaves from across the shores
of the world.

(Aksum: +Economy Development)

To the south, the Azanian city-states continued their own peace, largely
 uncaring about the rest of the world, their own kings content to grow
fat and wealthy on the trade flowing in. Christian missionaries operated
 in significant numbers in these regions, often funded by Christian
kings wanting to do their own part for God’s plan. Similarly operated
Yibri missionaries from the south, who were largely successful in
converting many of the region’s Zoroastrians. The arrival of the latter
has served as somewhat a nuisance to the Christians, but a few Asian
texts have begun to proliferate into Azania, brought by the Yibri.

(Azanian City-States: +Culture Development)

But in the nearby sands of Arabia, a great shift was afoot. For
centuries, the middle of the peninsula, between the Aksumite presence in
 Sheba and the great realms of the Egypt and Babylon, had been a great
number of fractious tribes. Christianity had slowly crept through the
peninsula in preceding centuries. Often, some of these tribes fell under
 foreign influences. But between about 505 and 525, one tribal
confederacy centered around the city of Mecca, dominated by the Quraysh
tribe, underwent a period of expansion and political evolution to the
north and east. Over these two decades, King Abdullah al-Hasim of the
Quraysh would unify the Hedjaz and the Najd through the sword, quickly
becoming the dominant power in the peninsula, and using Christianity as
an expansionist unifying force. United and stronger by the day, Arabia
is watched with growing anxiety by Ghassanids, Babylonians, and
Aksumites alike.

## The Wars of the Albanian Collapse

In 525, the Albanian Empire, one of the strongest empires known to man, was but a memory.

The sudden collapse of the Empire began with the death of the Shahenshah
 Vardanes in 509, who had been the sole thread holding it together. His
two sons both laid claim to the throne, each backed by various satraps
and court factions, and the Empire descended into civil war. Thus the
fighting started. It appeared. Then followed two opportunistic satraps,
one ruling from the city of Persepolis that once served as the great
Imperial capital, and the other in Kandahar in the far east of the
Empire, who himself had gotten rich from reaping trade, got the idea to
perhaps carve out independent realms for themselves. So they attempted
to do so.

This would have been an entirely ordinary round of civil war, but soon
after a pair of foreign invaders entered the fray. The first was the
Scythians, who poured into the Caucasus from the north in 512. The
second was the Babylonians. By that year’s end, they had reached
Ecbatana itself, placing the city under siege. To the south, another
Babylonian army quickly captured Susa. The advanced siege weaponry the
Babylonians had brought was sufficient to make the sieges quick and
easy. With, the Emperor fled, and as he fled the Empire began its final
collapse. Babylon looked as if it were ready to emulate Alexander the
Great’s conquests and bring all of Persia into their empire.

With the Albanian Empire having been thoroughly weakened, the
opportunity was ripe for another player to enter the game. The ones who
the Greeks called the Hephthalites stormed into Persia from the
northeast in droves after 515. The fledgling independent realm of
Gandhara was rapidly crushed underfoot, the Gandharan satrap-turned-king
 martyred in his palace. Within mere years, much of the Persian
heartland was under firm Uar control. Driving south, the Uar vanquished
any remnants of the Albanian army that might have survived. The Uar
established a capital of sorts at Nishapur, from where their khagan
declared himself Emperor, though control of the land is loose, and it is
 uncertain how long the Uar can maintain their control. To the south,
the satrap of Makran, a desert land, quickly bowed to become an Uar
tributary – the Uar were more than happy to let this, knowing that
trying to march through the desert was effective suicide.

With, the Babylonians attempted to move on Persepolis. When the Farsi
satrap-turned-shah heard this news, he started panicking, but he quickly
 came up with a new plan – he simply shifted his allegiances, promising
tribute to the Uar emperor in exchange for military help. The Farsi and
Babylonians met at the ruins of Pasargadae in 518, and at first, the
Babylonians were winning, driving deep into the Farsi lines. Then, the
Uar cavalry swept down from the flanks, routing the Babylonians and
forcing them to retreat completely from Fars back to Susa. However, all
this has come at the cost of Farsi independence, as the Farsi have been
reduced to a tributary of the Uar. Yet, in Persepolis, the Farsi shah
stirs, as he does not long plan to maintain this, especially with the
Uar control of the land uncertain as it is. Babylon has incorporated
Medea and Elam into their empire, though their control over the
mountainous territory remains not entirely firm.

All in all, it is estimated that perhaps a fourth of Persia’s population was killed during the civil war and the Uar invasions.

(Albanian Empire: -21 Infantry Companies, -7 Cavalry Companies, -1 Siege Trains, -Existence)

(Scythia: -2 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development, +Loot)
(Babylon: -5 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -3 Mercenary Companies, -1 Siege Train, -Stability, +Loot)

(Uar: -9 Cavalry Companies, -1 Siege Train, +Army Development)
(Fars: -2 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies)

In the wake of the Uar’s move to Persia, the Uyghurs took the
opportunity to expand their confederacy to the west in the late 510s and
 early 520s, some Uyghurs migrating with the military expansion, and by
521 the Uyghurs had reached the Oxus, which continues to mark the
western frontier of Uyghur territories several years later. A few
Uyghurs clashed with the Bactrians along their respective frontier in
the 520s, to little consequence as the Bactrians held their border
fortresses, and in fact the chaos only encouraged the Bactrians to
further reinforce them. Meanwhile, in Bactria itself, the king in
Bactra, seeing his realm precariously balanced between fluctuating
steppe tribes, managed to negotiate a peace with the Uyghur khagan.
This, combined with the fact he has passed some minor administrative
reforms to empower the military, has helped secure Bactrian independence
 – for now.

(Bactria: -2 Infantry Companies, +Stability)
(Uyghurs: -2 Cavalry Companies)

Amidst the chaos, the satrap of Susa was killed when Susa was captured
by the Babylonians. With only an infant child, authority of the satrapy
nominally passed via regency to his wife, the satrapess Roxana. Alas,
she did not, in fact, have a satrapy to govern, and the sequence of wars
 made staying in Persia untenable. So, in 513, with some loyal soldiers
in her husband’s name, she crossed the straits to the region of Mazun,
and secured control of Sharjah, Mazun’s major market town, where she had
 herself crowned “Shahbanu-i-Mazun.” The issue for Roxana and her
successors, in the coming years will be how to manage their own Persian
Zoroastrianism over the Christianity of the country’s Arab majority.

## India

To the east of collapsing Persia, Oman mostly attempted to consolidate
its own power in the wake. Roxana’s flight to Mazun rendered any
attempts at capitalizing at Persia’s fall too costly, so the Omanis
instead turned east for wealth. In 515, an Omani trade fleet arrived in
the port of Patala in India, bringing with it a great deal of gold, as
well as other passengers – Christian missionaries. The kshatrap of
Patala was impressed by the Omanis, and after a series of audiences,
allowed the Christians to stay in the city. Said Christians managed to
link up with the Nasrani of Kerala, and in the years since a small but
growing Nasrani community has been born in Patala. At the same time, the
 Omanis returned with a number of Buddhist and Hindu texts, brought back
 by a scholar, which were added to a growing Omani royal library in
Muscat, at the behest of a quite curious king.

(Oman, Western Kshatrapas: +Culture Development)

Those same Western Kshatrapas continued to squabble amongst themselves.
At one point in 508, neighboring Taxila launched an incursion into some
of the northern kshatrapas, perhaps with the ultimate aim of paving a
route down the Indus Valley to the sea, which had the potential of
giving them access to both Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade. This paved
the way for a conglomeration of forces, naturally led by Patala, to ally
 and counterattack. The ensuing battle surprised the Taxilan armies,
routing them and forcing them to retreat, all the way back to the city
of Taxila.

(Taxila: -5 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies)
(Western Kshatrapas: -2 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, +Stability)

Taxila would suffer its own issues, especially when the ailing Taxilan
king died in 510 from wounds suffered during the abortive southern
campaign, and a succession crisis began. A rival feudatory within the
realm, Megasthenes, would set himself up as a breakaway king in the
eastern city of Sagala, close to the Magadhan border. A number of
Taxila’s vassals joined Megasthenes in revolt, and in the ensuing
conflict, Taxila was unable to bring the revolt back into line, so there
 it stayed. Megasthenes has also managed to conquer the city of
Bucephala, which has been converted in the years since into a fortified
Sagalan border town. Sagala, with close cultural contact with the Sakas
and with Magadha, has begun to fall away from the “Greek” part of the
Indo-Greeks somewhat, at least in court culture.

(Taxila: -2 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, +Stability)
(Sagala: -3 Infantry Companies)

In 522, after a procession of short-lived Sundara kings over a decade
and a half that did little for the Magadhan state, a teenaged Ram
Sundara II engineered a palace coup and thus came to power. He
determined in his infinite wisdom that the best way of reuniting a
fractured state was simple: go to war, and win. And so, in 523 the
armies of Magadha swept into neighboring Bengal, then under the control
of Kamarupa. And, astonishingly, it worked. With instability in Bengal
higher than ever and Kamarupa barely able to retain its control of the
area, the Magadhans vanquished Kamarupa and evicted them from Bengal.
Magadha has since attempted to consolidate its holdings, while Ram
Sundara turns his forces west, gazing upon the rich plains of the Indus,
 while rump Kamarupa links their wounds.

(Magadha: -5 Infantry Companies, -7 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development, +Stability)
(Kamarupa: -9 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)

Kalinga spent much of its resources building a network of forts along
the the northern border, with now an increasingly powerful Magadha, in
the hopes of stymying any future incursions into Kalingan territory. The
 Kalingan court did, at the same, fund a number of trade missions to
nearby locales in the East Indian Ocean, some of which reached the Pyu
city-states in Burma, establishing contact between some of the southern
states and Kalinga.

To the south, the ongoing South Indian Golden Age of sorts continued
with earnest. There was rather little war, and rather great prosperity.
Some of classical India’s greatest works of literature, art, and
architecture hail from the early sixth century. We start in Malwa, whose
 kings ensured that their state partook in this great cultural
flowering. First, they funded trade missions from their ports to places
such as Patala and Nelcynda, and even as far as Oman. Malwa, and its
capital of Ujjain, became known as India’s center of mathematics and
astronomy, as great works on the number zero, trigonometry, and even
algebra were created here during this time.

(Malwa: +Stability, +Economy Development, +Culture Development)

The Chalukya dynasty of Karnataka mainly patronized the erection of some
 impressive temples throughout the Kannada countryside, on scales that
surpassed all previous temples. Also in Karnataka was a large number of
public works projects, including road construction, harbor improvements,
 and trade patronization. All this has helped tie the realm of Karnataka
 ever closer together, and the Kannadigas live in peace and harmony, and
 this period’s Karnataka has become renowned for its literary prowess,
especially in poetry.

(Karnataka: +Stability)

Lastly, we come to Tamilakam. In that nexus of philosophy that was
Thanjavur, the capital of Chera Tamilakam, a group of philosophers from
across India gathered. It was there, in approximately 503, that the
Carvaka school of thought first became prominent. Carvaka was an
esoteric offshoot of Hinduism that was quite unique and rebellious – not
 only did it completely disavow the existence of gods, or karma, or
reincarnation, or any of the standard Indian beliefs, it professed a
belief in pure materialism. It was radical, but popular, and so by 520,
the Carvaka school of thought had become all the rage in philosophical
circles and amongst a number of upper caste Hindus in the region who
openly espoused this philosophy, especially with Tamilakam as prosperous
 as ever. By 525, it had become a significant minority in some parts of
Tamilakam, Karnataka, and into Malwa.

(Tamilakam: +Culture Development)

Lastly, Anuradhapura’s era of dominance over the island of Lanka ended
in 516, when King Vijayabahu shifted the kingdom’s capital from
Anuradhapura, in the central highlands of the isle, to Gokanna on the
eastern coast. It is uncertain what exactly Vijayabahu was thinking when
 he made this decision, but perhaps he was influenced by Gokanna’s
capacity as a port, as well as the arrival of grand trade ships from
Nusantara several years earlier.

(Gokanna: -Stability)

## Southeast Asia

In these years, Tarumangara prospered under the benevolent and just rule
 of her queen, Sri Ratu Andriana. Her reign saw a number of major
developments. First amongst them were a great trade infrastructure
overhaul, greatly centralizing the administration of local harbors.
Following this was a number of edicts discriminating against “foreign
religions,” particularly Buddhism, which were seen as upending natural
Nusantaran morality and society. Infidels found their property
confiscated, and foreigners were prohibited from proselytizing on
Taruman soil. These reforms are entirely popular amongst Taruman
society, and were successful, though some Hindus in particular remain in
 remote parts of the country. In the 510s, the island of Sulawesi was
brought under Taruman control by force, and by 525 all of it was under
Taruman control, despite some battles with local chieftains.

Lastly, and perhaps most far-reaching, was the queen’s dispatching of
Taruman ships in the early 510s to faraway lands. Some ships sailed
west, arriving in the Chera capital of Thanjavur, a route already
travelled by merchants, but these official ships brought back a number
of Indian goods and texts with them. En route, a few posts were
established on the otherwise insignificant islands between Nusantara and
 India. Others sailed north, landing first in Guangzhou, then journeying
 to the lands of Hirajima. Other ships sailed east – these ships
disappeared, and never returned at all. Finally, some ships sailed
south, to reach a previously unknown island, but the sailors reported
back that this island was far too big to circumnavigate. A trading post
was established on the coast in a convenient location, but the locals
the Taruman have encountered have little worth trading; the trading post
 for now seems mostly to be to facilitate local fishing of sea
cucumbers. Some daft adventurers have attempted to trek deeper into the
interior, but have found little of note. Yet it is clear that some vast,
 mysterious land has been found.

(Tarumangara: -2 Infantry Companies, +Stability, +Culture Development, +Navy Development)

Little is known about what happened to Champa and Kamboja in these years
 – it is known that the two countries fought a number of inconclusive
wars with each other, and Kamboja’s rulers in particular were quite
happy to spread Hinduism throughout the region – known from the fact
that some of Kamboja’s actions were recorded by Chinese and especially
Indian visitors, and the fact that a number of temples exist in the
region dating from this time – and it is also known that Kamboja
expanded somewhat up the Mekong river. Champa sent a number of trade
ships to Guangzhou in the hopes of impressing the Chinese emperor, but
they had the misfortune of arriving at nearly the same time as the Yibri
 fleet (described later in some detail) so they were recorded as naught
but a footnote. But it is still known that the Champans returned having
obtained some Chinese texts.

(Champa: -1 Infantry Company, +Culture Development)
(Kamboja: -1 Infantry Company, +Army Development, +Culture Development)

In Burma, the age of the Pyu city-states continued. However, by the end
of the period, power had begun to specifically concentrate on one of the
 city-states – that being Beikthano, in the south. In about 511,
Beikthano subjugated Sri Ksetra, which controlled the far south and the
Irrawaddy delta. Beikthano proceeded to start building a hegemony of
sorts, though it is still far from secure. In the north, the city-state
of Halin started expanding in the 510s, and conquered neighboring
Taguang in about 520. Through close trade contacts with the Buddhists of
 Kalinga in eastern India, Buddhism has started to spread faster in the
south, culminating in Beikthano’s king adopting Buddhism in 523.
However, uniquely, it is the esoteric Vajrayana school that has achieved
 prominence amongst Burman Buddhists. It is yet to be seen how Burma
will end up in a short time.

(Pyu City-States: -2 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company +Stability, +Army Development, +Culture Development)

## East Asia

China was dominated by a dance of politics and intrigue. It started in
501, when the King of Liao, seeing the writing on the wall with the
growing strength of the dynasty of the Great Sung, accepted an offer of
protection – he would retain sovereignty as a Governor-General of Liao.
However, under the command of the Imperial Chancellor Yang Guo, an
imperial army was quickly dispatched to the border between the two
realms. As if this was not a worrying enough situation for Liao, in the
next several years peasant revolts began springing up, especially in the
 north and east of the kingdom. With the Liao army distracted, their
worst fears were confirmed in 504 when Yang Guo’s army crossed the
border with clear hostile intent. The brilliant techniques used by Yang
Guo in this campaign were recorded down to history. Amongst them was the
 hiring of an almost equal sized army of prostitutes to travel with that
 of the Sung, preventing much of the sexual destruction that is almost
natural with war, along with harsh punishment for any war crimes. The
humaneness of the Sung, coupled with forced land redistributions and
punishments for accused corrupt Liao officials, meant that the Liao
peasants greeted the army as liberators, and openly undermined the
defense. The weak and distracted Liao army stood little chance, and
despite some sporadic Liao victories in skirmishes aided by the terrain,
 by and large by 506 the campaign was concluded, the Liao court in
custody, and the area incorporated seamlessly into the Empire.

Less further afield, after the defeat of Liao the Great Sung also spent a
 great deal of money on an empire-wide irrigation improvement project,
which. And the Yangdi Emperor ordered a council of imperial scholars,
led by Ling Wei, to categorize and codify the laws of all the realm
under one. This would become known as the Yangdi Code. Thus, it is an
era of peace and prosperity in China, as with the lands more and more
redistributed to the peasants, they can enjoy a greater standard of
living than any others in history.

(Great Sung: -8 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -1 Siege Train, +Stability)
(Liao: -5 Infantry Companies, 9 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

Another landmark event occurred in 508, when the harbor of Guangzhou was
 suddenly filled by a truly immense fleet of quite strange ships, crewed
 by dark-skinned men. This treasure fleet claimed to come from a faraway
 land called “Yibram,” which was in a perpetual struggle against another
 land, “Madagascar,” supposedly an island that the Yibri were beginning
to conquer. The Chinese and Yibri exchanged words and goods – the Yibri
said that they had set sail some years earlier from a city called
Nacala, where, on the command of their benevolent ruler Mursal,
construction had begun on a fabulous harbor, reputed to be the finest in
 the world when it would ultimately be completed. Ultimately, a few of
the Yibri stayed and established a presence in Guangzhou’s foreign
quarter. The rest returned with a great amount of gold, some Chinese
texts, and a great deal of sailing experience, just in time for Mursal’s
 death in 523, replaced at that year’s Rabbi Council by one Shido Jeyte.
 Yibram enjoyed prosperity and peace.

(Yibram: +Navy Development, +Culture Development, +One-time Trade Bonus)

In the Tarim Basin, the instability caused by the fall of Liao enabled
the rise of the city-state of Khotan. With neighboring Qarqan, to the
east, destabilized by this after 505, Khotan was able to mobilize, and
capitalize on a dynastic dispute between two Qarqan princes in 508 to
capture the city. The city was placed under the rule of one of said
princes, who was installed a Khotan subking. By the end of the next
decade, Khotan had turned its armies west, to capture the city of
Yarkand in 519 and install a similar subking. Khotan has become the
strongest rising power in the region, as its neighbors panic and form
alliances amongst themselves to stymie Khotan’s expansion.

(Tarim Basin City-States: -1 Infantry Company, -3 Cavalry Companies, +Stability)

Neighboring Rouran turned their eye to the east, to the petty khagans of
 the Syanbi and Ashina, and demanded their absorption into Gur’s great
Khanate. The Syanbi khagan, unwilling to resist the light of the Gur
Khan and promised to retain a degree of authority under the Rouran,
quickly folded in 505, with the Syanbi and their lands incorporated into
 the growing Rouran Khanate. Nevertheless, a good number of Syanbi
chieftains formerly aligned to the khagan were unhappy with the
situation, and resisted the incorporation, often violently. The
neighboring Ashina Turks entirely rejected the Rouran, and knowing that
certain war was coming and assisted by companies of Jurchen mercenaries,
 mustered all their forces possible to resist the Rouran when they came
in 508. The battle that ensued was fierce and bloody, but in the end of
the day the sheer force of the Rouran was more than enough to break any
sense of unity the Ashina had, especially after the Ashina khagan was
killed on the battlefield.

(Rouran: -Stability, -9 Cavalry Companies)
(Ashina: -15 Cavalry Companies, -4 Mercenary Companies, -Existence)

In 502, the ships of Hirajima set sail for the Amami isles to the south,
 the aim being unmistakable: conquest. The With overwhelming Hirajima
force, the islands’ warring defenders, divided amongst tribes and petty
princelings of their own, stood no chance of fighting back the invaders,
 as, one after the other, they fell. It is often claimed by its accounts
 that the conquest of these islands was entirely bloodless. Though this
may not, strictly speaking, be true, what is clear that once these
islands had been subjugated, the Hirajima military progressed south, to
the three mountains of the Uchimaa islands, which were just as easily
conquered. By 503, so had the Sakishimas, or Far Isles. The conquest,
and the subsequent integration of the islands into the Hirajama
administration of circuits and prefectures by the 510s, has opened up
traffic on the new southern trade route from Hirajima through the
Uchimaas to China.

Simultaneously, the Rouran hordes flooded into Korea from the north. The
 swiftness of the Rouran cavalry took the Jin by astonished surprise,
driving their armies back into the peninsula, and brutally rampaging
across the landscape, sacking and raping every village and town in their
 path. In late 517 the Rouran fell upon the Jin capital at Pyongyang,
and placed it under siege. But the Jin were astonishingly resilient,
managing to retreat and regroup, and several months later a
counterattack from the south was able to relieve the siege, and drive
the Rouran from the peninsula, though at great cost. While the lands
north of Korea are lost, the Jin survive in weakened form, but the
security thread, and no further Rouran campaigns were attempted allowing
 the state time to centralize. Meanwhile, the Khanate has begun to
struggle to maintain control over the entirety of their territory, and
Gur Khan himself has become an aging man who is barely able to control
his own court, let alone a realm that spans from the edge of the Tarim
Basin to the Sea of Japan, and the radiance of his authority seems to be
 the only thread holding the realm together. Even a number of public
works projects begun in the late 510s and early 520s, such as irrigation
 and roadworks, have had limited effects in reversing this.

(Rouran: -Stability, -2 Infantry Companies, -8 Cavalry Companies, -1 Siege Train, +Loot)
(Jin: -7 Infantry Companies, -9 Cavalry Companies, +Stability, +Army Development)

In the wake of this, Hirajima turned its eye to southern Korea, where
three kings reigned in Baekje, Daemahan, and Silla, in an uneasy peace
trapped between the sea and the beleaguered behemoth of the Jin to the
north. But in the 510s, that ended rather suddenly. In a bold move,
Muryeong of Baekje, the northernmost and most powerful of these
kingdoms, successfully negotiated an alliance with the foreigners of the
 Hirajima Kingdom, not against the Jin, but against the other two
kingdoms. And so, in 519, Baekje went to war. Their newly improved army
split in two and assaulted both Daemahan and Silla at once. Meanwhile,
the so-dubbed Solar Contingent of the Hirajima army sailed from the
south. The Mahan and Sillan fleets were easily destroyed by the greater
might of the Hirajima, and the two parts of the Solar Contingent fell
upon each kingdom’s capital from the south. It was thus a matter of mere
 months before the conflict was wrapped up. A triumphant Baekje swiftly
annexed the other two kingdoms by 520, though the island of Saishū was
kept by Hirajima. Nevertheless, rebellious nobles complaining about
“foreign cultural influences” remain a nuisance.

(Hirajima: -3 Infantry Companies, -2 Squadrons, +Army Development)
(Baekje: -3 Infantry Companies, 1 Cavalry Company, +Army Development)

(Daemahan: -4 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -1 Squadron, -Existence)
(Silla: -5 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -4 Squadrons, -Existence)

Closer to home, King Heinei began the construction of the Seven Ports on
 the southern tip of the Home Islands: Ōmura, Tōishi, Sai’ishi, Togitsu,
 Matsukai, Haenosaki, and Sasebo. This was meant to create a network,
all under a single administration. As most of the ports are mere fishing
 villages, the extensive labor on constructing the ports began in 512.
However, Hirajima’s military expeditions meant that only limited
resources could be used. Still, with the campaigns in Korea concluded,
perhaps that will change soon. In any case, Heinei’s reign will be
remembered in the future as a time of expansion and prosperity.

## Story Bonuses

Following the death of Queen Alania Henaff in 498, Brittany entered a
temporary period of political uncertainty as the Great Houses entered a
phase of indecision, potentially threatening conflict between several
major houses and their own feudatories. However, ultimately the rising
power that was House Ollivier managed to broker a compromise, placing
Roscille Ollivier as queen of Brittany. A Breton poet wrote a long
ballad on this sequence of events, which has been hailed as one of the
great epic poems of its time.

The Friso-Batavian linguistic scheme has proven itself a large success,
and has been even adopted by some neighboring countries, whose
bewildered but intrigued rulers court Friso-Batavian scholars for
advice.

The complex, federated nature of the Ishfanian government, combing
hereditary positions, a legislative body, and a complex administrative
and judicial system, has succeeded in tying the ethnically diverse state
 together. It has horrified kings in neighboring countries who fear that
 they too may someday come under trial, but in Ishfania is has brought
lengthy political stability with virtually none of the coups and bloody
dynastic politicking found elsewhere.

The songs from the Nording court in Meduseld spread far and wide in the
early sixth century. Some say it is because of these songs that the
Nording armies proved themselves so effective and victorious in Iberia,
with their smashing victory over the retreating Carthaginians.

Latiniki had established itself as a center of western philosophy, with
Neoplatonic, Pythagorean, and Stoic schools competing for cultural
dominance in sixth-century Rome. So it was that the city of Rome by 525
had become firmly recognized as the western center of the descendants of
 Greek philosophy, rivalled only by Athens with its new Academy.

Dacian administration has been a great help in stabilizing the Dacian
state, and, combined with the state’s rather effective electoral system
for the crown. Its biggest contributor has so far been a smoothened tax
system, which is quite advanced in comparison to its neighbors.

The utilization of the state cults in the Confederacy of Hellas means
that the Confederacy has been able to reject both Christianization and
Solarization quite effectively, and Hellenic paganism has grown once
again in numbers in the Hellenic poleis.

The faith of Riders Eight has spread far and wide through Scythia, even
in its newly conquered Caucasian territories. In fact, in the present
day, it is quite possible to tell slaves from their masters, at least
superficially to travelers, by the fact that the masters universally
worship the eight.

The new building atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in the Ghassanid
Kingdom, is considered by nearly all to be one of the great buildings of
 the world. But it has also helped draw in a good deal of wealth to
Jerusalem, as pilgrims from far and wide flock to the city in growing
numbers.

Mori was entirely codified in the Rouran Khanate in the first quarter of
 the sixth century, as books of the Mori, such as its holiest, Amiinom,
the Book of Life, have begun to proliferate far and wide, throughout the
 Khanate and even into places such as Korea, where they have produced a
number of converts, especially amongst Koreanized Jurchen populations.

The adoption of the Yangdi Code in the Sung state has been a great
success in unifying and tying together the scattered local laws of the
state, meaning that, even in the areas once belonging to the Liao
kingdom, the empire’s coherency and stability are higher than they have
ever been.

With Yibri expansion westwards up the Zambezi River, many of the locals
found themselves being assimilated into Yibri culture, including the
Yibri variant of Judaism, in ever-increasing numbers.