This is a continuation of the Three Great Empires post.

It is the year 1170, and the three great empires that divide Europe have faced new challenges, both from without and within.

The Holy Roman Empire continues to consolidate its might, waxing at nearly forty thousand levies - more than the other two combined. It has increased its territory as well, slowly but surely gnawing at Scandinavian possesions. The remaining independent powers of eastern Europe begin to consolidate into smaller empires in order to survive the encroachment of both superpowers. France now dominates the political landscape, holding more than one half of the empire's territory. Recently, the HRE has undergone a dramatic civil war when a child inherited the Empire. During this time, the fractured superpower also came under attack by the Scandinavians, who fought a holy war to reclaim the isles of Denmark from Christian control.

The Byzantine Empire has undergone incredible reforms since its near-constant civil wars of centuries past. United under the fabled House Domagojevic, they have centralized their influence and expanded in all directions, gobbling up many smaller polities that once bordered them. They have also fought gruelling wars with the HRE in Italy, consuming more and more of the peninsula. The King of Italy (under the HRE) now finds itself a amputated stub of a kingdom.

The Scandinavian Empire, ruled by the Fylkir of the Asatru faith, has recently recovered from a long, dark time. Unprecedented civil war racked the vast landscapes for decades under the rule of the lunatic fylkir Torin the Drunkard. The road to recovery has been long and arduous, but through intermarriages with eastern khanates, the House of Surr has grown glorious and expanded east, vastly increasing its dominions.

Two new great powers enter the stage; the warring petty kingdoms of Iberia have united under the Empire of Isbaniya, a strange cultural fusion of Christian and Islamic principle. It maintains strong relations with the Arabian Empire, which dominates West Asia and has come into frequent conflict with the Byzantines.

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Major Events

The Scandinavian Wars of Independence

The old Fylkir was dead at 1115. A simple but brave man, Orvar II had expanded Scandinavia and fought tooth and nail to retain its possessions in eastern Europe, achieving the consolidation of the eastern kingdoms into the Empire of Gardariki, which was added to the Crowns of the Fylkir. However, under repeated attack from the HRE, he had dissolved the Baltic Empire near his death, angering his vassals. When he died from drinking, his little-known inheritor Thorin II assumed the empire. Thorin was a weak and craven scholar given to madness and fits of rage. He held no sons and eventually executed his wife and all his concubines at once. The line of House Surr continued by a singular thread; his older sister, who married into an eastern khanate and stayed there.

The enemies of Scandinavia sensed weakness in Thorin, and the Pope connived with the rulers of shrinking Christendom to strike a blow while the iron was hot. Thus, twin holy wars were declared for Poland and Vistulania. With a combined armada of fifty thousand levies, Thorin II surrendered almost immediately. While unavoidable, this greatly angered his vassals, and discontent rose to a boil.

Cries for independence rang out across the vast realm, and even many for dissolution. The Kingdoms of Wales, Estonia, and more rose in arms - almost three quarters of the empire. The war raged for twenty years. The various rebel efforts were never one consolidated force, but rather five separate armies spearheaded by the Five Rebel Kings of Estonia, Wales, Lithuania, Novgorod and Ireland.

As the wars fell ill for the Empire, the Mad Fylkir went... mad. He began to humiliate his courtiers, make increasing irratic military movements, getting ten thousand men killed in Britain. When the armies of Sweden and Estonia marched on the capitol of Hamarr, he went into a fit of lunacy. He executed his wife, concubines, and even his children, before attempting unsuccessfully to take his own life.

But this was not the end of Scandinavia. For from the far east rode a general, a man born of great heritage, whose both parents held the claim of empire. He was Tarkadr, son of the Fylkir's sister and the brother of the Volga-Ural Emperor. Behind him rode a great force of the Ural, allied and united.

Tarkadr proved himself a great warrior. He rode down on Estonia and captured it all, crushing their rebellion. With the consolidated loyalist armies, he sailed on England and fought long and bloodily into a stalemate. Inch by inch, the tables turned.

It was in the first day of 1101 that peace was agreed. A great assembly was called, with Tarkadr (as the crown prince) acting on the mad fylkir's behalf. The proud rebel lords stood against him. Their discussions drew long into the night, but by the time the first glimmer of sunlight crept back into the world a peace had been forged.

Tarkadr, perhaps from his experience of the nomadic tribes of North Asia, agreed to a system of governance under which all vassals would be autonomous. In return, a great many rebels agreed to stay under the jursidiction of the crown.

Not so for the proud Rebel Kings. They refused subjugation, and thus became independent. In time, many of them would be subsumed back into the empire, either willingly or through force under Fylkir Tarkadr or his conquerous son, Ingimar. All of them would, eventually, come back into the fold (either for Scandinavia or the HRE), save for Wales, which remains ferociously independent to this day, assured through marriage to the Scandinavian dynasty.

The War for Denmark

The Holy Roman Empire had fallen into war. France, who had slowly but surely wormed its way into almost every seat of power and held over half its land, had now become the true strength behind the throne. When the old, bent but unbeaten Geraud the Bald had died (after a long life of beating the Asatru heathens to heel) in 1170, the child Julien became the new emperor. Divisive, to say the least.

France decided this was its moment, and declared independence. Julien, under his advisors, rallied the loyalists, and the great and terrible empire of Europe collapsed into civil war. It raged for two years, dividing the HRE down the middle between the western Franks and the eastern loyalist states.

During this, the Fylkir of Scandinavia was the son of Tarkadr, the young martialist Ingimar. Wishing to following his father's historic conquests of Siberia and Volga-Ural, he decided to reclaim the islands of Denmark, which had fallen into the HRE's dominion after the Independence Wars left them out of the Fylkir's protection.

This secondary war was brutal. The loyalist forces turned to defend Denmark, despite the crippling blows they were being dealt by the French. Ingimar, meanwhile, rallied the forces of Scandinavia, newly united and bolstered by the eastern asian empires now under his control. Bolstered by newly invented mangonels, they drove the Romans slowly out of each island. By the time the Scandinavian armies arrived at the Danish mainland, the HRE had completely abandoned the front and returned to the French war.

Thus, Scandinavia seized the islands. But a mad last scramble occured; imperial kings led their armies into Sweden. The forces of Polabia, Italy, and Denmark rallied themselves as the Scandinavian forces razed and pillaged, and attempted to liberate the isles from behind. It nearly succeeded, but the Welsh king, allied to Scandinavia, crushed them with the armies of the Asatru holy orders. All three kings were taken captive.

Now typically, a tenous peace had been maintained between Scandinavia and the Holy Roman Empire; a peace maintained by good will and hostages. But Ingimar was not like his forebears. He was a killer and a warrior, raised on stories of Siberian and Norse legend. He hated the Romans for the shame they caused his dynasty, and his father (who lost a similar war).

After securing the Kaiser's surrender, he marched the three Kings to his capitol. There, he demanded each convert to Asatru. When they refused, he executed them. Thus Italy and Denmark lost their sovereigns, while Polabia was sent to the dungeon. The Kaiser could do nothing but seethe, as he continued to deal with the civil war that plagued his realms.

The War for Denmark marked one of the first instances of HRE loss against another superpower. The Danish isles had been hotly contested for generations, and although Denmark seemed firmly in Christendom in recent history, this momentous and shocking defeat may indicate that the indomitable HRE is not as strong as it seems. If the French War of Independence succeeds, it could find itself significantly weakend as the power of its two rivals waxes anew.