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The Hip Historian Iaredios

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  1. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    Lo, a rare iaredius! Fond of nebulae and Roman art, I have fused them. First made a glowing blue edged edit of dynastic emblem of the Comnenus dynasty, then made my own personal monogram. Tired of a plain black background with only this blue bird, I made the creature somewhat holographic and placed a befitting nebula as its background. Behold!
  2. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    So I started watching the OG Star Trek series, and loving it. It has put me in a sci-fi mood lately. In spirit of this, I have picked up Stellaris again. My, there have been quite a few changes to this game, and I welcome most of them! Game is more fun now. I revisited the Roman Empire space civilization i designed and touched upon some details before wiping all my previous saves and starting a new campaign with my interstellar Roman Empire.
     
    Many of you may be thinking, "How the Heck could the Roman Empire have survived beyond the modern day and unify the planet under its grasp?" Well allow me to explore some ideas of mine that could allow for such a course. I must specify here that in relation to talks of domination below, I am opposed to these Roman things and its taint on my faith in history. I am not saying this would be a better world, but a different world, that is all. Enjoy.
     
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    Despite what your outdated history classes may teach, the Roman Empire did not fall in Late Antiquity (a half decayed into independent Foederati kingdoms), but rather in 1204 at the hands of rogue catholic crusaders tempted by Venetian guile and in zealous revenge for a genocide of catholics in the domain of the Roman Empire under Andronikos Komnenos, culminating in the disastrous Sack of Cosntantinople. Its demise was settled upon during the Partition of Constantinople where Western occupying forces split up the remnants of the Roman Empire into crusader states and unified them under a crusader dynasty dubbed the Latin Empire, and successor Greco-Roman Kingdoms vied for who better represented the continuation of the Roman Empire. The so-called "Empire of Nikaea" was able to dismantle the Latin dynasty in New Rome and a second Roman Empire was founded under the Palaiologos dynasty, though the damage from the Sack was so extensive that they would never be able to rise anywhere to the great power that the first Roman Empire had. This second take was more of a Greek kingdom with strong Roman Imperial ties, and from here the term Byzantium would be used in later centuries to classify the Palaiologos realm that lasted from 1261 to 1453 (before purposefully misused in western eurocentric propaganda during the early modern period), where the shadow of a shadow fell to eastern invaders and thence forge an attempted Islamic Roman Empire, the Ottomans.
     
    That is what happened in our timeline, but it did not need to be so.
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    By implementation of the Foederati states to save funds on the military and the fall of imperial authority in the Occidental Roman realms due to corruption and puppet emperor, the West was going to be lost to the Roman Empire eventually, even if Maiorianus and the other last vestiges of strong authority were not assassinated by corruption. But a preventable loss of influence in the West would be the prevention of the rise of the Catholic, or Universal church movement, a counter-culture movement against the Roman Empire. During and after the reign of the Theodosius I, the Roman Empire proclaimed itself to be the realized New Jerusalem from the Holy Bible, and with that thinking, all of Christendom was to be under the power of the Roman Empire (the light in a dark world) and the leader was both a political and religious figure, this spawning the modern word Caesaropapism and the modern definition of autocracy which comes from the rank of the Roman Emperor in the government, Autokrator, absolute, supreme power (different from the title used by rulers to describe this position to their person, like Caesar, Augustus, and Basileus). The Catholic Universalism movement in the West taught that Christianity and Christians could exist and live beyond Roman Imperial borders and can survive without the Roman Empire or its authority. Parts of this initial movement still reside in the modern Papal Church, but was largely overtaken by church politics what with the Donations of Constantine and the making of their own (Carolingian) Roman Empire and Holy Roman Empire to secure their own hegemony over masses, and is now muddled with variance of traditions. The word Catholic was the same as Orthodox until they separated too far from one another and claimed one word each for themselves. (In short, the word Catholic Church now has a lot more baggage to it than the original Theodosian and later Universalist movement and main remnant from this period is the word Catholic itself). Likewise, the loyalists to the Caesaropapist rule of the Emperors were classified as being orthodox to the legal norm, and likewise this name exists in the modern day with little relevance to its present existence, unless a new Orthodox Emperor (understood as Divine Regent over New Jerusalem) is crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople (which has been vacant since the fall of the Russian Empire; Vladimir Putin was offered Imperial coronation but he declined the offer).
     
    In local levels, the traditions of the Roman Republic stayed true to freemen, though the growing danger of the world from the 200's-forward made many people give up their civil rights and become the first serfs in exchange for protection, and so serfs outnumbered freemen. On this topic, it must be said that slavery would later be technically outlawed on Christian grounds as the Abomination of the Age but many rich people had house slaves from captured prisoners of war and the Islamic Slave Trade and people turned a blind eye towards these as the only people that didn't like it were those in lower societal positions. The Roman Empire came to find that the best source of work came from motivation, so the Roman Empire serves as one of the earliest sources of free waged labor in the world. Funny how they go from mass slavery to free labor, but it took them less than a thousand years, and serfs were still a thing.
     
    With those things in mind, a good way to prevent the rise of Western Christian Universalism (also in the East, like the Nestorians ceasing Iranian persecution of Christians during the Sassanian period was by declaring themselves separate from the Romans) is to expand upon Justinian I's creation of the Patriarchial Pentarchy, for by this there was only one Patriarch in the western provinces, the Patriarch of Rome (later to be called the Pope) who assumed control over the rest of Europe as being under his religious dominion and at the same time led the counter culture Universalism movement, and also at the same time the Patriarch of Roma claiming the place of Imperial divine power with the help of the forged document called the Donation of Constantine (discovered to be a forgery in the 1400's) being used to attain higher power and help solidify Papal rule over the (Frankish/German) "Roman Empire" in Europe (the Emergent West as Romans called the developing kingdoms of Europe when being polite and not dubbing them as barbarians even by the crusades).
     
    Another means of this is to not be so strict in theological debates, allowing for more mental freedom and recognition in humanity's divine element of sentience, free-will. What constitutes as heresy and the crimes for it should be loosened, and Christ's message of freedom should be emphasized while also pointing out the need for a strong central authority to protect the commoners and economic stability, while also finding some way to make laws for the Emperors so that the prize of ultimate authority, the throne of the Roman Emperor, would not be as coveted and civil wars be prevented; reconciling this with divine authority and the boost of ego that comes with this is a tricky thing, only thing i can think of is adopting a philosophy of their contemporary future, Enlightened Despotism as laid out by Frederick II Hohenzollern, King of Prussia. This point of limitation of and responsible use of power is what stretches any plausibility for an ever-lasting Roman Empire, but the creation of the USA and the Internet are other events of implausibility in history as well as many other things, so perhaps something could be made. Potential reforms that fuse the Greco-Roman Empire with the earlier Latinate Roman Republic. To go off of the structure of the United States, perhaps a divine imperial federal level and smaller provinces/states with senators and monarchical governors, or in other words, in ways similar to the German Holy Roman Empire prior to the fall of House Hohenstaufen. The Empire being in a better economic situation for reasons stated below means that that Emperor Constans II will have no reason to strip precious metals from public works across Italy (shipping the stuff back to Constantinople), which accompanied by arresting the Patriarch of Rome (that is, the Pope) at the time for rebellious attitude, will make Italy and the rest of the West less angry at the Roman Empire and see a need for further independence.
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    Whatever the cause may be, retaining the unity of the Roman Empire, institutionalization of inherent freedom of man (within the plausible confines of their deranged Roman-Christian views), and the limitations of power while retaining divine authority, are the key ways of making a Roman Empire that could last. History would have an affect on these things, however, namely Islam. In our history, in the 600's Islam was able to expand beyond Arabia with a combination of military genius and unmerciful destruction, but solidifying their conquests over native peoples was because of national disunity and war weariness, the former for the Roman Empire in the form of rebellious Christian populations who tired of the tyranny of the caesaropapist Emperors and invited Islamic conquerors in so that they could practice their faith even it meant that they would have to pay more money than muslims (the dhimmi class of the Muslim caste system; i imagine it was only the wealthy because the poor in lacking funds would be forced to either convert or die), and the latter in the form of Iran under the Sassasnid dynasty who was essentially destroyed by the Roman Empire in their final war with them (though Iranian resistance persisted with minute Chinese assistance) and in this state found that after two major defeats they were wholly conquered, to not gain independence until (briefly the 1000's and (finally) the 1400's.
     
    In a world where the local Christians of North Africa, Egypt, Palestine and Syria were allowed to express sentience on theology and not bear physical punishment of force for crossing the whims of a tyrant, the Muslim invaders would have found it so much harder to keep their conquest of the East Mediterranean, if being able to do so at all. With this means that Carthage, the richest city in the western realms, would have been spared a second complete annihilation and Roman imperial presence in the western Mediterranean have been secure, so long as the city remained in control or intact (Carthage and Ravenna were the most powerful cities in the Empire's western realms, they being the capitals of vice-royalty polities, Rome was naught but a nostalgic relic of the past). In our timeline, so destroyed was Carthage after its conquest by Islamic forces that the citiy's ruins were abandoned and the nearby village of Tunis was instead invested in (in time Carthage became a village and Tunis became the big city); the fall of Carthage allowed for the conquest of Marrakesh and after a betrayal by a Roman fort commander opposite of Gibraltar, the Muslims conquered the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, save the northern hill-lands.
     
    With Carthage intact, Roman presence in New Carthage (South Spain) may be retained, and the heavily Romanized Visigoths will continue to be allies of the Roman Empire, providing a good counterpart to the Merovingian Frankish realms in Gaul. Without the Battle of Tours (Frankish realms in Gaul unify in order to halt and defeat a great Muslim horde from invading Europe from the West) to legitimize the illegitimate Frankish prince Charles Martel, the Carolingian dynasty does not rise to power and there will be no Charlemagne and the whole influence on history he had. The Conquest of Egypt and Spain proved to be vital to the economy of the Caliphate dynasties of the Arabian Empire, so without the funds in the form of the great treasures looted from these lands, we can expect that Islam to not be as expanded upon in this world, at least in the West. According to their scriptures, however, Islamic forces would continue onslaught to breach roman borders and the East Mediterranean may see a similar militarization of settlements like what was seen in Europe during and following the Third Century Crisis to defend against Germanic invaders.
     
    One thing I wish to add is that the Chinese Tang Empire help fund Zoroastrianism Iranian resistance against the Arabian Empire, so after an inevitable fall of the "second" Persian Empire (under the Sassanid dynasty) I can imagine that to cause trouble for their newfound foes, the Roman Empire would fund their ancient enemy in rebel uprisings, the mutual funding of such things between Romania might cause diplomatic talks to ha e been attempted, adding a third attempt to the two attempts made by these two regions.
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    With the Roman Empire retaining influence over the Christian world (save the Nestorians of Iraq, the Syriacs of India, and the Oriental Church of China) and retaining its vital power-bases in north africa, the Roman Empire would be able to push back the great Sklavonian Horde that conquered Greece and laid waste to the lands and the ancient inhabitants before the empire was able to push most of the invaders out and they mixed with the natives. the Danuvian Limes would still be a hot bed for conflict, if not by the Bulghar Horde that Justinian II unwisely brought to those lands (and the nemesis Bulgarian Empire that the horde would turn into) then by other forces, but again the funds from the Mediterranean means that it would not be as apocalyptic. With ties to the West still intact, perhaps an alternative history counterpart to Constans II would successfully make Syracuse of Sicily the new Roman capital (he was assassinated for this consideration), so Justinian I's restoration of the West could still be a dream to be realized in the future.
     
    From this point onward, with the technological achievements of the Roman Empire seen during the early medieval ages (Greek Fire, the automatons of the throne room, the flying throne, and mining machines) and stable national security, as well as ties to the Germanic kingdoms of the West without rise in papal power, we can see that the Roman Empire will become a couple centuries ahead of what was seen in our world, especially in the passing of ideas from the Germanic west (like the advancement of steel plate armor) to the mathematics of Iranian muslims prior to the crushing of scientific advancement by a certain al-Ghazali. Only worries be the tradition of Roman cut-throat politics, the pride of Emperors, and the influences of possible invaders like:
    The Viking Norsemen (a lack of Charlemagne's Saxon Wars would prevent the radical fury of the Norsemen and their attacks on Christian lands would be less fervent, but climate change and overpopulation would lead to excursions out from the north so Viking raids and invasions will still occur, but just be less severe; this might also lead to earlier exploration beyond Iceland and longer lasting settlement in Labrador), Seljuk Turks (Seljuk never converts to Islam, the actions of all his descendants never occur), and the Mongols (Temujin Borjigin could have died very easily while exiled as a child in the winter wilderness). But who knows, maybe with the survival of the great empire of the west, perhaps gunpowder could be brought to Rhomania without need of Mongol delivery, or maybe chemists could make their own gunpowder in their own search for eternal life and power. And with that, it is only a matter of time before a second era of Roman expansionism unites a resurgent Europe back with the Roman Empire or at least vassalizes them, religious fervor may make a thing like Roman Crusades, and in seeking alternate routes around the Islamic world to their eastern counterparts in Cathay , may have them discover the New World. (Cathay a strange archaic word for China, but they thought was separate from China, so there was both China and Cathay coexisting when in reality they were the same thing.)
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    From here, i can say that centuries down the line after a lot of stuff happens, the Roman Empire spans the globe, whereby in an early action in Stellaris, they then unify the Earth under a single banner, and start mining the rest of the Sol System. They seek to expand the realm of their realized New Jerusalem to the stars, pressing their claim as the inheritor of all Creation no matter who or what may stand in their way. All planets shall like tzatziki sauce, or perish! Joking aside, a lot more places are going to go with neo-byzantine and neo-byzantine-gothic architecture (from the influence of Franks and Visigoths), and so might remind you of Theed from Naboo.
     
    To fit this new world of total dominance of a single, theocratic-monarchic imperial state, a new Dominante System may evolve (the first version in our timeline never dying until the empire died twice, started by Constantine I following his abolition of the Tetarchy System, tweaked by Theodosius I), the title of Basileus (meaning King or Emperor) having since given way to Sebastokrator (a title coined by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos that was itself meant to supplant the ancient title of Caesar in rank). Sebastion is a Greek translation of the Latin Augustus, and means "venerable, awe, reverence, dread, to feel ashamed in the presence of", and Kratos means Ruler in Greek. This new word is to hark back to the times of the Pax Romana while not upsetting the Greek-speaking majority of the Empire. The planet Earth is known as Hagioteira, or Holy Land/Holy Earth. The capital is Nea-Atlantikos, a massive green-tech megalopolis in-between Spain and the Caribbean, and is largely populated by global warming refugees of a largely beflooded Europe.
     
     
     
    The words of this https://www.videoclip.bg/watch/561819_legionarii-knights-of-a-new-age,  and its tone, befit my Space-Age Empire of the Romans, and the Roman Empire in general, its epic grip of fascination on me as an example of a dark picture of humanity that we must avoid to become, to never return to, and thus, to learn from.
  3. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    So. Spring break is nearing its end. I had plans for it. Namely buying a sword. What happened to divert me so? Be sheer whimsy I saw Sid Meir's Civilization V on my list of owned Steam games, and decided to try it out. 4 days later I pronounce "Enough!" and I have ceased its usage entirely. Game is addictive in a way unlike anything i have seen, and its give-back is near nothing. Its an unhealthy addiction that has robbed me of time I was so looking forward to for the month prior. My cousin had something pop up that has made him unavailable to attend the state Renaissance Festival, now I shall either go with my brother or skip it in its entirety and purchase a sword at a sword shop at the local super-mall. I hope either have in stock the noble Spatha, because I want to get my Rome on (a Gladius is too small for my giant of a frame) and eat a lamb gyro hence'wards. i am also thinking of getting a credit card so I can get a worthwhile laptop and pay it off over time, thereby playing and beating the game of banker usury and showing our unwanted overlords that I am worthy of owning land in the future (away from their morgage-garbed prying hands, the nationless fiends). Woe to America for being in such a state, but there is little I can do then play the game and come out the better for it in the long run if I play right. And it starts with daddy wanting a better life-distraction machine.
  4. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    [This review is spoiler free]
     
    An unpopular opinion (I have many of those), but I liked Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice, and the longer cut of the film makes it one of my favorite films. With it's release, many more DC Comic movies were set for release. One of these was a welcome surprise, Aquaman, and i have been waiting to see this movie for a couple of years now.
     
    Despite his ridicule across the past half-century, I always thought Aquaman was cool, and after reading Geoff John's take on the character that he did early in the New 52 era of DC Comics, Aquaman became one of my favorite superheroes. I have a fridge magnet and two shirts, and have been wanting figures of some characters.
    People may ask why, nay, they always do, and I explain Aquaman's base plot-points as laid out by Geoff Johns: Arthur Curry is not only the heir to the Throne of Atlantis, he is also an unwelcome hybrid is an outcast between two worlds, and he runs from the world as a result. A time comes however when he must conquer his self-doubts and take up responsibility, and stops his half-brother from totally destroying the surface world and take up the Throne of Atlantis to create world peace. After that he has to watch over a people that doubt his place in power and conspire his downfall and represent his people in face of a surface world that holds him responsible for the actions of his people and predecessor. Also, the ocean is quite deep and vast, so supernatural forces often come to the forefront.
     
    The 2018 movie is largely inspired by the the Geoff John's run on Aquaman, but also takes inspiration from many points from throughout the character's long history as a comic book character. And i say inspired because it does not follow the comics point-per-point, and I largely applaud the vision seen in this movie as it takes many liberties, and some of those decisions I found myself preferring over the source material. Others, i think the source material did better.
     
    Story-wise, the movie is a little all over the place, something that would have been helped out in a clear Lord of the Rings-style intro exposition rather than telling such lore details in passing. A moment was given to explain everything but it was rather rushed. And the plot is very reliant on this world's history of the Empire of Atlantis and the varying kingdoms it split into (most of the existing remnants are mutants), so making it more clear would have been helpful. Also brief showing of character names a la Burn Notice would have been good.
     
    Another point to gripe about is West Sahara. The transition for the first royal duel and the events there and the arrival to West Sahara have quite the jarring difference in tone. You got to ease into the tone difference so ti is not natural, you don't go from being edge-of-the-seat action, to making jokes that felt more befitting of a romantic comedy. Redoing West Sahara prior to the ruins would have been preferred. Likewise, the action scenes in Siciliy lasted too long, took away from the overall plot.
     
    But to what i loved, were the elements of high sci-fantasy and the visuals. Sweet Jesus, the scale of the visuals were ambitious, the scope of the lights of Atlantis made you feel small, and the ending large-scale battle felt like an underwater version of Warhammer 40k. Another note are the sound effects, you actually feel as if they were filmed underwater, as both the vision fitted this and it sounded like they spoke underwater. And all the lore? I was able to pick up on it along the way, and i feel like we were only teased at the full scope of the underwater realms and the stuff related to them. Of all the DC Comics movies made with this universe, this movie felt like it carried more franchise potential then the main Superman entries.
     
    So, is this a perfect movie? No, but i loved this movie and I can look past the small mistakes. I implore everyone to go give this movie a shot and see more to Aquaman than just the orange dude that talks to fish. i was purposefully vague here because everything i liked is important to the story and i don't want any spoilers.
  5. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    So I made a list of fictional people (or fictional versions of people) from different eras that could time travel and defend the earth in case of a great or cosmic supernatural threat to the planet Earth. At the bottom will be possible contenders that I am iffy on. To make it on the list they have to live on the planet earth, no alien, fantasy worlds not set on our planet Earth, and generally has to be supernatural/horror/Halloween friendly.
    Antiquity - Hercules
    Late Antiquity - King Arthur and the gang
    Renaissance-Baroque Period - Belmonts, Solomon Kane
    Enlightenment Period - Joana Constantine
    Victorian Period - Van Helsing, Johnathan Joestar
    1900's - Present Day - Joeseph Joestar (and Speedwagon Foundation), Zatana, Dr. Stephen Strange, Ghost Rider, Ash Williams, Blade, John Constantine, Heckboy, Raven, Jotaro Kujo, Josuke Higashkata, Swamp Thing, Animal Man

    Maybe:
    Kull of Atlantis
    Conan the Cimmerian
    Dante (Dante's Inferno video game)
    Dante (Devil May Cry video game)
    Kratos
    Alucard (Hellsing)
    MeninBlack (film and animated series)
    Hoss del Gado
    Dream/Sandman

    Other's recommendations:
    The Doctor (Doctor Who)
    Danny Phantom
    Yugi (Yugioh)
    Ghostbusters

    So, judge my list, give me any thoughts to it, and give me recommendations to add to it!
  6. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    Greetings, how do you do fellow kids?
     
     
     
    If anyone wants to ask a history question, then go on and do it here! What's keep'n you huh? I shall be thine school color book of cheat and will answer according to my powers... I specialize in medieval and ancient history, but by my me-sight most things are aware to big-tall me! Just keep it civil and respectful, i know this subject has many a sensitive scab.
  7. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    SPACE WHALE
     
    Art I made in 4 hours on August 24th. Inspired by an imaginative vision I had while listening to the Gojira album From Mars to Sirius. Art is two fold, just like the song Flying Whales, both incorporating it's fantasy subject of primordial-alien-space-whale-beings descending onto a partially terraformed Mars and teaching a man to fly and taking him to a planet in the Sirius system, as well as the other side of all of Earth's surface being underwater and the whales swimming above the ruins and it appearing that the whales are flying in the sky.
     
    Sorry about the camera quality, it looks so much better IRL.
     
    I was going to post a drawing before this, but I decided against uploading it here due to it's topic. You can see it here.
  8. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    Funny how after all these years I've wanted to try out having a blog. Let's see how this works, shall we? Feels like an advanced status update. But hey, look, i can chose an 'entry image'. Why not start with my good old "Swagilicious Octavius" edit to the sound of Rainbow's Stargazer? Alriiiight...
     
     
    Only thing going on right now is that i need to go back to eating properly, and i start work again next week. Found a possible replacement job so hopefully I wont need to do the present one for much longer.
  9. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    So the website has returned! Though I do not frequent this site very much, I am glad that something that was once a big part of my life is still kicking. I thought it was to be gone forever. Huzzah, I say! Let this site carry on to the distant mists of time.
    As a minute life update: my family is moving by the end of this month, recently tried sake for the first time, and I bought my first sword today. I will have you know it was nothing of weebish nature, rather it was a Roman Imperial Spathion. Stay thine katanas, otakus of the occident, I shall abide by hellene steel!
  10. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    Hello folks. I have a Teepublic store. It mostly covers obscure history stuff but I also publish designs that I like (including the UDD). Its not much, but the extra 2-5 bucks that comes my way each purchase is nice. Thank you for visiting.
    https://www.teepublic.com/user/iaredios
  11. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    I had an un-submitted blog post detailing about half of the history of the Roman Empire. It was a great wall of text even with spacing. So I decided to split it into many posts. First, let us go over the most famous period of the Roman empire, its first two centuries, the golden age know as the Roman Peace, or the Pax Romana. Despite its name, this era is not entirely devoid of civil strife, but it pales compared to the millennia following. Though it started in the ancient city of Rome, the Roman Empire was not to always be centered around the city. Similarly, the contemporary name of the Roman Empire was actually Romania (or in Greek, Rhomania), meaning Empire of the Romans. This reflects that the Empire was not completely tied to the city but the culture and the people that it had loosely united into one. More on this in later blog posts. Also, as Christianity was to later have a major role in the Roman Empire's identity, I will be giving samples of it's history during each dynasty.
     
     
    Julio-Claudian Dynasty = 95~ Years
    Now for the famous Julio-Claudians, founders of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Pax Romana, the golden age of the Empire of the Romans. Many documentaries about this dynasty and the history of its rise to power exist, so I won't go into too much detail here. At the time called the Caesars, as this title would be used as the title of the Roman Emperors until the Third Century Crisis, they are remembered after their extinction as the Julio-Claudians. Starting from Octavianus to Nero, the dynasty lasted [68-14=54] | [27+14=41] | 54+41=95 years. Wow, I thought they lasted a shorter time. Not bad for a bunch of tyrannical nutjobs (though Octavian and Claudius were good, Tiberius was only good the first half of his reign, Nero and especially Caligula were indeed nutjobs). For giggles, we can include Julius Caesar from his 5 years rule as Dictator for Life, even though as the nominal dynasty founder he was never an emperor but a dictator who after his death would (unfortunately not) return back to Republican norms. 95+5=100, give or take months. Even without Julius Caesar, it's still impressive considering their inherent strain of madness.
     
    The first land to be conquered by the Julio-Claudians was Egypt (under Augustus), and later Brittania would fall as well (under Claudius). Octavian would undergo two name add-ons, first adding the name Gaius Iulius Caesar to his to proclaim legitimate succession to Caesar's elgacy, then being awarded the title of Augusts by the Senate; in creating the Empire, he founded the Principate System, where the Emperor was supposed to be a guardian of the people and the Republic still functioned, but by stealthy skill he was to be the supreme dictator over all the realm, though local affairs would continue to carry true republican behaviors.
     
    It was under this dynasty that Christianity emerged, during the time of Emperor Tiberius the messianic figure Yeshua Nazareni/Jesus of Nazareth was born Palestine and later emerged from the desert after a period of self-exile and proselytized for 3 years before his crucifixion, later titled Khristos or Annointed One by his loving followers. The first Christian persecution started when Caligula put pressure on them and killed a few Christians in the Levant for refusing to worship him, though at the time the Roman Empire did not separate Judaism and Christianity from one another. Later a Christian-specific persecution occurred under Nero, though it was local to central Italia, and it under Nero's orders that two Apostles were executed.
     
    After toleration of his disturbed tyranny ran out, Nero ended up infuriating the government and it turned against him, he running for his life and locking himself in a building before killing himself to avoid an even more horrible end. The death of the emperor with no heir caused civil war, the Year of the Four Emperors.
     
     
    Flavian Dynasty = 27 years
    The Flavian dynasty, from Vespasian to Domitian, lasted 96-69=27 years. Though brief, this dynasty had a profound impact on the Roman Empire. Vespasianus, a general under under Claudius and Nero that assisted in the Empire's invasion of Britain and crushed most of the Jewish Rebellion; his son and heir Titus finishing Vespasian's campaign in Palestine to quell the Jewish revolt and bringing forth the prophecy of Jesus Christ in the destruction of Jerusalem and its second Temple (this having an affect in increased Christian conversion), the treasure from the temple being used by Vespasian to make the Flavian Amphitheater, aka The Colosseum. Vespasianus brought order after Nero's suicide, also brought back traditional Roman values to a long-decadent throne, and long served as an example of character down the millennia. His sons Titus and Domitian succeeded him, respectively.
     
    Domitian in particular is remembered for dropping the Republican facade the Principate system was founded on while he ruled, seeing the Senate as nigh-worthless and tackled all projects personally head-on, likewise noted for his policy in low expansion, Britain and Dacia being the exception (a general of his named Agricola even set up a military camp on Irish shores but when Dacia went to war Hibernia/Ireland was forever abandoned, and likewise most of Caledonia/Pictland). The economic reforms of Vespasianus and Domitianus restored economic stability to the Empire after funds had been plundered by the Julio-Claudians, and the reforms also allowed for the golden age of the next dynasty, the Nerva-Antonine. A zealot for the Imperial cult, Domitian ruled the empire as a divine monarchy, and he is recorded by much later Christians chroniclers for starting a second persecution, though likewise only local; Roman records for this are scarce, but their records show extreme taxation for Jews and Christians. Killed by a Senate plot (no doubt because he had stripped them of their power), Domitian's assistant Nerva took over the same day.
     
     
     
    Nerva-Antonine Dynasty = 96 Years
    Nerva-Antonine Dynasty, from Nerva to Commodus, lasted 192-96=96 years.
     
    A golden age of the Roman Empire (or 'golder', as it is already kind of a golden age), the Nerva-Antonine as they were called upon their extinction were renown for their notabilities are great leaders (though imperfect personally), but ended their line on a poor note. The highlights of this dynasty include the likes of Traianus/Trajan, Hadrianus, Marcus Aurelius, and infamously, Commodus. Traianus extended the empire to it's greatest length in his conquest of Dacia and Mesopotamia and solidifying an official, legal border. Hadrian reinforced this border solidification when not messing around with his pedophiliac child lover; Hadrian's most long lasting contributions would be the great fortifications known as Hadrian's Wall and Hadrianopolis in Europa Thraxia (Thrace) as well as reinforcing the Danuvian Limes (limes were Roman military borders with walls, trenches, and forts lining them). Antonius Pius, heir to Hadrianus and adopted father of Marcus, ruled in a time of great peace, expanded into Caledonia (modern Scotland) and built the Antonine Wall, which would later be abandoned and the border be brought back to Hadrian's Wall. Trajan also established a policy that people converting to Christianity were to be fined, and it is this relaxed stance on Christians that made medieval Papacy held that Trajan was a 'worthy heathen', and their contemporary traditions hold that a Pope resurrected Trajan and baptized him as a Christian.
     
    Then famous Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, this father and son duo is famous from multitudes of media. Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, abandoned the conquests of his father as well as the Republican facade, dried Rome's coffers and was the first piece of a disastrous duo to cause the Third Century Crisis. He also cosplayed as Hercules in the arena. Even though there would be exceptions like Marcus Aurelius and much later Maximinus Thrax conquering Germania (though they be temporary), After the reign of Traianus the Romans would usually become less expansionist and more defensive, largely fighting to regain lost territory legalized as Roman by Trajan. Commodus would be assassinated while ina spa by his favorite wrestler, which a conspiracy involving the senate and his guard had paid to strangle him while the cucumbers were on his face. His death with no clear heir caused civil war, the Year of the Five Emperors.
     
     
    Severian Dynasty = 42 years
    Severan Dynasty, from Septimus Severus to Alexander Severus, lasted for 235-193=42 years.
     
    Septimus Severus won a civil war following the murder of Commodus and stabilized the empire, something his successors would unravel at an increased rate. During his reign, Septimus Severus invaded Arsacid Iran and sacked their capital of Ctesiphon (nicknamed Mahuza, "The Cities", as when Ctesiphon grew it assimilated the previous Hellenistic city of Seleukia to become one metropolitan area), and reinforce the Arabian Limes and the African Limes. With the discord made with the Year of Five Emperors (which by its end Severus sealed power), Septimus Severus saw the need for religious (and thus, national) unity, so reformed the Roman faith to bring greater cohesion between its native cult and the religions of all those lands it ruled over; that is, save the exclusionist Christians, and he passed an edict to punish those that convert to either Judaism or Christianity but leave existing members alone (he protected Christians eh knew but this decree made many local persecutions rage across the Empire and the emperor did not lift a finger to help). He invaded Caledonia/Pictland (modern Scotland), reoccupying the Antonine Wall before falling fatally ill and dying in modern York.
     
    One of the sons of Septimus Severus, Antonius "Caracalla", born with the confusing name of Marcus Aurelius Antonius Severus, was a grouchy man who loved to wear Roman-Gaelic clothing, mot notably a Gaelic cape called the caracalla, and he issued a law, the Antonine Constitution, that made all the free male denizens of the Roman Empire into voting citizens, and all free women enjoy the same the same rights as Roman women, rather than just those born in Italy. Because of this, all those that were affected had the name Marcus Aurelius added tot heir name, and those people named their children Marcus Aurelius or variations of it in gratitude to the fashionable grouch, (this made dating some things annoying when tracing things back to this man, any of all these multitudes of people, or the O.G. Marcus Aurelius. He was seen as a tyrant as he would not put up with any sort of disobedience after the 'gift' he gave to everyone and he ordered large-scale massacres across the empire throughout his reign at pockets who rose their voice to give concern or objection of policies.
     
    Caracalla was assassinated by the head of the praetorian guard (the beginning fo a pattern), who himself declared himself Emperor and was later branded an enemy of the state and killed. The usurper was replaced by a distant relative of Caracalla, a Roman who worshiped Canaanite gods and who both was spoiled by his mother and abused his priestly powers. He was Elagabalus, named after the Canaanite sun-god El-Gabal, was a degenerate 13 year old priest of the Sun who made his religion of Sol Invictus the state faith, whose waste of funds and complete degeneracy are way too spicy for this website and brought great shame to the Empire of the Romans. The reign of Elagabalus is the other piece to the destabilization caused by the reign of Commodus, and despite the assassination of the tyrannical boy-emperor, all it took was a slip up in the form of his poor choice of legal heir, Alexander Severus, to cause the end of the world.
  12. The Hip Historian Iaredios
    Ever since I was little, I have been making worlds, either for myself to explore, or for my friends to join me in. Be it dinosaurs, neopets (that takes me back), Star Wars, Bionicle... I've always been the group lore-master.
     
    Then i took my first foray into creative writing. To those that have been here long enough, I have undergone many a name change until I settled upon two, they being variants of RC15O5 OMEGA and, presently, iaredios. It was back in the reign of the former that I made my own bizarre Bionicle world between the years 2005-2010, which I so creatively named The Dark War Chronicles. It had about everything that I could offer at the time as a pint-sized edgelord, from an accidental rip-off of Sauron who encased the planet in a orb of fire and lightning to show off his power, biped bat people that were literally Vamprah, psychic four armed gorilla people with eyes on the temples and a mouth beneath the jaw, from gritty mole-people-Koopas to their arch enemies the angel men of Mawkron who lived in a huge space city that served as a planetary ring until it crashed upon the world by the nefarious mole-Koopas, and a toa who bonded with a volcano demon and founded a confederate-empire of mutants based on a continent that looked like Texas.
     
    I eventually abandoned this project of mine when I lost my stories with the Great Dataclysm, and later I matured, and realized its incompetence and the fact I was trapped by Lego's universe and their ownership of Bionicle. Back in the day, many of us said "We should buy Bionicle so we can continue it ourselves!" Briefly, my hopes were caught by that idea, but equally brief consideration showed how feign it was. And so i left the website for 2-3 years.
     
    But from the ashes of The Dark War Chronicles, a new project was born from my own imaginings of what happened in Bionicle after Lego abandoned it, publishing my ideas on BZPower for the first time in years. First going by the name The Ackariad, then Bionicle Universalis, then lastly called A Rude Awakening. It went through many changes, heck the second (present) topic has hundreds of pages detailing many ideas bouncing off of friends of mine (mostly Toa Imrukii). But as much as I enjoyed this process, it became clear to me that I craved for more as this became my only tie to Bionicle, and even that was weighing upon me, and it showed as my work on the project resembled less and less of Bionicle to me, which I actually approved on subconsciously.
     
    In the last year, I have focused more on an original fantasy universe, and since August my ideas have greatly been developed with pages of notes being written and revised. Many things are the maturation of ideas from my work on ARA, others are completely new even as of the day I write this. And my drive? To follow in the steps of John Tolkien, not in any shallow mimicry of races and tropes, but in pursuit of genuine creativity, application of all the history and other fields i know, and like Tolkien as expressed in his Mythopoeia Letter to Clive Lewis, offer a serviceable sacrifice to the Lord in the form of this inspired, fictional work.
     
     
    I do not have a name for this world right now, but that's okay because that's not what is important right now. When I get further along, it will make itself apparent to me. After the sudden departure of a beloved friend (moving out of state), feeling ignored by most in my life, and the drain of being at a mentally exhausting job, i have to say that this gradual progress makes me genuinely happy. And as i try to capture my ideas in art, so too has my artistic skill improved.
     
    I wish to thank those that have helped me, Among them being Toa Imrukii whose understanding of linguistics cannot be undersold in its usefulness in this endeavor as well as his wordy kindness, my cousin 'qwerty' who i have bounced ideas off with as he is also making his own fictional world, my mother for believing in my ability to undertake this work, J.R.R.Tolkien who showed me that there is harmony between fantasy thought and Christian faith, 'sydney' for being my friend for over a year and creatively inspiring me with the books we read together and her general company, and finally the Great Lord Above for my understanding, everything I want to be, and everything i observe and the multitude of inspiration I draw from hence.
     
    This side project may not go anywhere, but I am enjoying myself nonetheless and this is all part of my life long personal progress. Who knows, i may be blessed and others will be able to pick up my ideas in shelves or in drone packages in the future, but that's not what is important here. Not in the slightest.
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