The Late Classical Age (1 CE-500 CE)
The time period known as the Late Classical age began about the same time as the calendar most of the current Baalist nations use begins. The latter is, of course, marked by the birth of a young Hebrew child, Jacob of Ur. But that is to be explained later.
The period in the North of Europe began with a bang, as several major wars started at once.
The Teutons had continued their expansion unabated up until about now. Now being about 1 CE. At this time, they ran into what seemed like natural boundaries. Novgorod, Saxony, the Carpathians, and, of course, the Baltic Sea. These borders were challenged, though, by the new Grandmaster of the Order, Wilhelm Martell. A fierce, battle hardened warrior, he showed that he could play the game of statesmanship with a clever royal marriage securing an alliance with Novgorod.
With no worries in the north, he plunged southward, into Saxony. Shattering their armies in but a few short weeks, the Teutons soon were united under one banner. However, again they ran into what would best be described as the metaphorical brick walls. Specifically, Marcomannia and Dacia. They werent content with their current power, though, so they focused on creating new sources of wealth by initiating trade with the West of Europe, enriching them greatly.
Emboldened by the heaps of gold in their coffers, they marched off to expand again, this time by founding a trading post in Gotia, also known as Sweden. Rapidly colonizing the interior of the nation, most of Southern Scandinavia was under their rule by c. 400 CE. There was a problem, though. The highly centralized nature of the Teutonic government made it naturally a bit hard to govern the faraway Scandinavia, and with a slight lack of contact, an uncontrollable rebellion broke out.
The Vikings freed themselves by 450 CE, and had given the Teutons a severe bloody nose.
Unfortunately, the Order was given little time to recover their losses, as even as the Viking rebellion succeeded, they were forced to fight a new war, as the Crimean Empire attacked in the southeast. A large army, highly disciplined and motivated, it routed the Teutons in the early stages of the war. About three years in, though, the Teutons managed to turn the tide of the invasion with their Novgorod allies right in front of the capital of Vilnius.
With the war finally in their hands, they managed to make a white peace with Crimea, at about 500 CE.
Meanwhile, over in England, the King of the nation of the same name led a large expedition to conquer Wales. This soon dragged into a long, protracted war, taking several hundred years against the fierce Welsh archers. However, it was finally conquered about 350 CE, meaning that England now had the power of the famed longbow men. With these troops on their side plus the already large complements of armored cavalry and pike and sword infantry, they managed to subdue Scotland and install their King as the king of Scotland, as well. Only Sussex and Wessex now remained.
Far to the south, meanwhile, the Mediterranean powers remained in a something resembling a status quo.
This was first broken by a long protracted Tartessian-Maghreb war in about 100 CE that led to a surprising victory by the Berber nomads. Conquering all of North Africa west of Lybia, they extended their empire to the far south, conquering the lands around the Niger, and busied themselves there for a while.
Things began to fall apart for them, however, in the late 300s. The Ashanti tribesmen of the south rebelled and established their own kingdom, and though the Berbers retained a hold on the Mali area, they lost much of the rest to the Ashanti and a recalcitrant Tartessos. The status quo remained like this until the end of the age.
Tartessos, meanwhile, after the initial Maghreb war, had set its sights on the Roman territories in Hispania. With a combined arms army reformed from the Maghreb campaign, they were quite ready for it, and they slaughtered the Roman legions sent to defeat them, surprising many observers. They were stopped just short of Italy, however they had also gained the Med Islands out of the deal.
Later taking some land from Maghreb, they prospered even further. They were now probably the second richest nation in Europe, after Rhodes, and maybe the most powerful.
The Gauls, meanwhile, consolidated their empire, little more.
Rome after the startling loss to Tartessos, foundered for a rather long while, unsure of what to do. They tried to capture Sicily from Rhodes and failed miserably, they tried an expedition against Thessaly and failed again. Finally they settled on Illyria and Helvetia, and conquered them after a determined war.
Rhodes prospered this whole time, fighting off any threats to their territorial integrity and even adding Pontus to their holdings after a while. They were the richest empire in all of Europe, and probably the second most powerful.
Akkadia, meanwhile, had expanded considerably down the Nile, meeting Abyssinia and establishing friendly trade relations, and soon thereafter Travancore, doing the same.
Their religion of Egyptian Monotheism, popularly called Copticism, soon spread all over Africa, and even into Western Europe, taking root in Tartessos, Rome, and Gaul, though these areas native religions survived and managed to compete against them on a relatively equal footing.
Syria, meanwhile, managed to conquer Armenia to set off the new era, outflanking Babylon in a grand maneuver. With this new advantage, they were able to beat Babylon in their next war, taking part of northern Mesopotamia. It later converted to Nestorianism (see below).
Babylon was troubled. Firstly, they had recently lost a war to Syria, and this perturbed them, naturally. Secondly, Persia was a bugger. And of course, lastly, Jacob of Ur was born, a young Hebrew exile form Syria. It was not a good thing, this, for it caused a civil war of religious turmoil in the nation. It emerged new and Nestorian, with the holiest site of all, Ur, in its boundaries.
Nestorianism, the new great monotheistic religion spread to Persia, Crimea, Syria, Rhodes, Thessaly, Dacia, and the Teutonic Order. Small minorities are located in Gaul and Rome.
Far away, in India, Travancore became one of the greatest cities in the world, and the invention of the Printing Press in the very same city only reinforced this. The riches brought in by the diamond mines of course aided in making the city enormous. They soon opened a rich diamond and spice trade with Akkadia, and colonized a considerable part of the Indian Ocean. However, the fluffy age of goodness was not to last.
A vicious civil war had started in Gujarat, after the death of the dynasty. The two sides were really front organizations for the Travancori and Magadhan point of views. Magadha won the war due to their closer proximity. This upset the balance of power greatly enough to provoke Travancore into declaring war on Magadha. The war was of course mainly fought on the soils of Hyderabad, shattering the nations economy. By wars end, neither of the two great powers were satisfied, and Hyderabad had been broken into tiny pieces.
Meanwhile, to the East, Malacca further expanded and prospered. A few naval wars with Sirivajaya proved nothing, but neither side really cared, they were, after all, minor trade disputes. On the other hand, Malaccas merchants ranged ever further, colonizing more and more islands, bringing more and more goods home.
Sirivajaya was in much the same boat. They had prospered in spit of several wars with Malacca, and colonized many islands, indeed, even subduing the island of Java to add greatly to their population and power.
To the north, much was troubled in China. The Mongols began a full scale war with Wei and Qin, aided by Japan and Korea. The powers managed to crush the stubborn Wei, but the people lived on in the new nation of Shang, and the Mongols made little progress with Qin, a buffer state of Xixia having sprung up while the Mongols were occupied in the west (see below).
Wu, however, did little but expand and win more and more to their side. Massive immigration from Wei after the Mongol invasion bolstered their population, and they conquered the Nan Yue and Vietnamese easily enough. All seemed well enough.
The Mongols, meanwhile, propagated their new warriors, conquering much before suddenly it all went to pieces. The Turks attacked in the west, managing to surprise the Empire and conquer a considerable chunk. Infuriated, they tried to reconquer it, but they could do little, and a long protracted war drained their resources. Finally they made peace, waiting for an opportune moment...
All around the world, it seemed, peace was settled, but what peace was this? What would next come? Tension hung in the air.
OOC: This is half of the mini-update, for you all to chew on while I write the other half in this last hour of the day.
No map, sorry, which indicates how NOT DONE this mini-update is.
The next half comes in an hour... If it comes at all today.