Order of Saint Knut
Capital: Lyndanisse
Government: Theocratic Bureaucratic Monastic Order
Culture: Danish and Ost Danskere in the Order itself and in the cities and garrison towns; Chuds, Balts and Russians in the countryside; officially Monastic Catholic, but pagan and Orthodox practices survive in the countryside; Danish is the language of the Order, but the populace mostly speaks Ugric or Baltic dialects.
Nation Background: Several militant monastic orders appeared during the Baltic Crusades. During the period of Danish greatness, they were generally not very important, as the Danish state handled administration and the orders had a habit of interfering in the orderly running of the Danish empire. As the Danish empire waned, however, the center delegated more and more authority to the regional powers in the empire, the orders prominent among them. By and large, this did not go very well for the monastics; they were incapable of navigating the difficult political situation in dying Danish empire and were mostly destroyed during the great pagan revival in the fourteenth century. The Canutians alone survived as a unified force, initially largely simply by virtue of their center being in the comparatively stable areas around Lyndanisse. Faced with growing turmoil and pagan and Russian aggression, Erik of Jamt, master of the Order in the mid fourteenth century, took drastic action. The Order was remade as a strictly military, rigidly disciplined, and entirely Danish body. Seeing itself as the sole defender of Christianity and Danish influence on the far shores of the Baltic, the completely militarized order managed, after a century of nearly continuous warfare, to subjugate the Chuds, drive back the Russians and Balts, and establish control over a wide swathe of the old Danish empire. The Order has recently come under increasing criticism from Ramsey for perceived shortcomings, and the reappearance of Denmark as a force has complicated relations with that kingdom, but for now, at least, the Order seems finally secure.
Duke's Lithuania
Capital: Kaunas
Ruler: Grand Duke Zygimantas
Culture: Lithuanian, with residual elements of various other Baltic groups, minor Slavic populations and a large population of Ost Danskere; Monastic Catholic, paganism still a force in the countryside but mostly underground; mostly Lithuanian-speaking, with some minor Baltic languages strewn around, Polish and Volynian among those respective groups, and Ost Dansk among the Ost Danskere.
Nation Background: The Lithuanians emerged from their early obscurity to become a a favored Danish client in the late twelfth century. The real beginning of the present Lithuanian state was in the mid thirteenth century, when the Danes delegated significant local authority to the Dukes of Kaunas in an attempt to preserve order in the Baltics. The Dukes of Kaunas stayed tied to Denmark longer than any other Baltic client, a policy that saw them receive, especially towards the end, substantial resources from the Danish center, which played a significant part in the early growth of the state. As the Danish empire collapsed entirely in the fourteenth century, the Lithuanians, although they did take part in the general pagan revival, alone of the successor states sought an accommodation with the Ost Danes. The alliance with the Ost Danes and the takeover of residual Danish royal interests gave the Lithuanian dukes greater resources than their competitors, which they used to subdue a large portion of the Baltic territories by the middle of the century. The Lithuanian dukes then turned east, where the Russian principalities had been thrown into turmoil by the end of the Horde. By the end of the century, Lithuanian arms had conquered Polotsk and Pinsk and established a loose hegemony over most of the rest of the princes of western Russia. A generation's pause ensued, as Lithuania suffered revolts and fought a series of inconclusive wars with the Order, but then the steady march to the southeast resumed, faster than ever. Lithuania's upward progress was interrupted in the late 1470s, however, by a succession struggle between the young Zygimantas and his older, more experienced and more popular uncle Algirdas. The struggle quickly acquired ethnic, regional, and above all religious overtones, as Zygimantas was a Christian. Things culminated in a Danish intervention on Zygimantas' side, ostensibly to assure the victory of Christianity. This intervention secured the throne for Zygimantas, but drove many of the Lithuanian powerful into the arms of the exiled Algirdas, who established a court in the east and detached most of the Lithuanian empire from Zygimantas. For the nearly two decades since Algirdas and Zygimantas have eyed each other warily, neither powerful enough to displace the other, each waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Prince's Lithuania
Capital: Minskas
Culture: Lithuanian ruling class over a largely Volynian population; Paganism dominates among the Lithuanians, Volynian Orthodoxy among the Slavs.
Nation Background: Denmark's intervention in the Lithuanian civil war secured both Algirdas' defeat, as Danish troops swung the military balance against him, and his survival, as large sections of the Lithuanian nobility followed him into exile, unwilling to follow a Danish puppet. Fleeing east after his defeat at Kaunas, Algirdas established an exile court at Minsk, fought off Zygimantas' attack, and declared himself prince of Lithuania. Algirdas managed to outcompete Zygimantas and gain the loyalty of most of the broader Lithuanian empire. In the near two decades since, Algirdas has tried to keep the empire together, with middling success, while always staying focused on Zygimantas.
Principality of Polotsk
Capital: Polotsk
Government: Centralized Feudal Monarchy
Culture: Volynian Slavic with heavy Lithuanian influences; a largish Ost Dansk population and a smaller Lithuanian one concentrated in the western half, and a Russian minority in the northeast; mostly Novgorodian Orthodox, with Monastic Catholicism among the Ost Danes and some paganism among the Lithuanians;
Nation Background: Polotsk was formed as an appanage of Kiev in the eleventh century, and conquered by Danes pushing up the Dvina in the twelfth. A native principality was reestablished in the late thirteenth century, and turned east towards Russia. Unlike the other Russian principalities, Polotsk remained outside the Mongol system, and free from Mongol domination, did well for a time, conquering Smolensk and establishing quite a credible dominion in western Russia by the early fourteenth century. The sudden fall of the Horde in the middle of the century kicked off a chaotic scramble for position in post-Mongol Russia, and Polotsk came out of it severely weakened, defeated by Novgorod and losing Smolensk to revolt. While Polotsk was focused on eastern affairs, Lithuania in the west was rapidly gaining in power, and Polotsk came under increasing Lithuanian pressure starting from the late fourteenth century, and culminating in the conquest of the principality by Lithuanian arms in 1396. Polotsk spent the next eighty years as a component of the Lithuanian empire, permitted more autonomy than most but strictly subordinated to the Lithuanian Duke. When the Lithuanian civil war broke out, Polotsk supported Zygimantas. When it became clear that Zygimantas had neither the intention nor the means of contributing to the city's defense, the native boyars expelled the Lithuanian administration, elected one of their own as prince, and resisted Algirdas' seige on their own. Polotsk has since established a small but moderately powerful principality along the Dvina, while being heavily courted by both sides in the Lithuanian struggle, but should that struggle ever end in victory for one contestant or the other, it seems clear that their first action would be to attempt to reclaim Polotsk.
Metropolitanate of Kiev
Capital: Kiev
Government: Centralized Theocratic Bishopric
Culture: Volynian Slavic; Kievan Orthodox; almost wholly Volynian speaking
Nation Background: Kiev was the center of the first united Rus state around the turn of the eleventh century, and the center of the Orthodox Church in Russia. The territory of Kiev was split early in the eleventh century into principalities at Chernigov, controlling the northeast, and Kiev, controlling the southwest. The political center of the latter rapidly removed to Volynia, and Kiev itself declined as the principalities fought over it. It remained, however, the center of the Orthodox Church, even after the Chernigov church broke away. After the Mongol invasion broke Chernigov and weakened Volynia, their ability and willingness to exert power in Kiev declined still further, and the Metropolitans, allying with the local notables, assumed gradually increasing authority for civil administration in the city and its hinterland. After the fall of the Horde, the Metropolitans operated as an independent power in the region, before being conquered by the pagan Lithuanians in the 1420s. While the Lithuanians successfully pacified a series of Metropolitans, the Russians who filled the lower ranks of Church administration were never particularly inclined to accept pagan rule, and a low level of rebellious activity and conspiracy was normal for Kiev. The Lithuanian civil war gave new impetus to these efforts. In 1480 the young Metropolitan Isidore arrived from Constantinople and immediately, to no small shock on the part of the Romans, repudiated the agreements with the Lithuanians, joined forces with the disaffected Russians, and raised a civic militia. With covert Volynian backing, Isidore resisted a halfhearted counterstrike from Algirdas, and has since established a fairly effective theocratic government over a wide area of Kiev's hinterland. Without luck, however, the Kievan Metropolitanate may prove shortlived; Volynia cannot be trusted, and should Lithuania be reunited the winner will doubtless come against Kiev sooner or later.
Principality of Volynia
Capital: Vladimir
Government: Centralized Federal Aristocratic Monarchy
Culture: Volynian Slavic, with some Poles in the northwest, Vlachs in the south, Tatars on the lower left bank of the Dneister; largely Kievan Orthodox, with a small Catholic and Orthodox minority; mostly Volynian speaking
Nation Background: Volynia was a possession of the Princes of Kiev after Kievan Rus split in the eleventh century. It quickly became one of the three most important principalities of the rota system. Changing Mediterranean trade patterns in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries increased the commercial prosperity of Volynia and the power of the Volynian princes increased accordingly. As the prosperity of Kiev declined, the seat of the Grand Principality removed in the middle of the twelfth century to Volynia. The principality turned gradually away from eastern affairs and the struggle with Chernigov in the later twelfth century, as ties with the Roman Empire strengthened and Volynia became enmeshed in the Roman wars with Hungary. In contrast to Chernigov, the Volynian rota system continued to function quite well into the thirteenth century, due to the proportionally greater power of the Grand Prince, the state consequently maintained a high degree of unity throughout that time. When the Mongol army appeared on Volynia's borders, the Grand Prince , having witnessed the annihilation of the rota principality of Pereyaslavl, submitted to the Mongol khan, and Volynian arms formed an integral part of the Mongol invasion of the European Roman Empire. Having entered the Mongol empire by submission, rather than conquest as with the other Russian principalities, the Grand Princes of Volynia were favored by the Mongol khans, turned away from European affairs, and were granted successively greater authority over the eastern principalities, until it appeared that the old dream of reuniting Russia was within reach. However, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Volynia, unwisely assuming tacit Mongol approval, made a dramatic power play in the north east. The furious Horde response to this transgression broke the power of the Grand Princes and virtually depopulated large areas of Volynia, and the various ex-rota principalities went their separate ways. Once its economy recovered, which took the better part of a century, Volynia began a political revival. Prince Mikhail inherited Galicia in the early fifteenth century, granting the revival further impetus. Volynia lost out to Lithuana in the east, but had better luck in the south, subjugating the northern Vlach polities and reaching an understanding with the Tatar confederations of the western steppe. Expansion stalled in the later half of the century, as the Horde arrived on the steppe, and Volynia became increasingly involved with Roman affairs. The composite Volynian state is somewhat unwieldy, and conflicting regional interests are beginning to take a toll, but for the moment, at least, the authority of the Princes in Vladimir is not seriously questioned.
Principality of Tver
Capital: Tver
Government: Centralized Aristocratic Monarchy
Culture: Russian; Novgorodian Orthodox; almost entirely Novgorodian Slavic speaking
Nation Background: Tver was formed relatively late in the lifetime of the Grand Principality of Chernigov, and as as a minor appanage, rather than as a part of the rota. Capable leadership brought prosperity and power to the principality, but its Princes lacked dynastic legitimacy and so never ascended to the highest position of the state, even as the orderly rota began to break down in the thirteenth century. As a consequence, the Princes of Tver were forced to work outside the established forms, becoming willing accomplices of first Novgorod and then the Mongols. With Novgorodian silver, they bought a high position in the Mongol order of things, and for a time at last had a virtual monopoly on the Grand Principality. However, their position was always dependent exclusively on Mongol backing rather than on the strength of their patrimony or dynastic legitimacy. When the Horde collapsed in the 1360s, Tver for a time soldiered on, but following Grand Prince Daniil's death in 1376, Tver lost its hold on Vladimir, lost out in the interminable dynastic struggles over the succession, and by the middle of the next century were effectively a non-factor in Russian politics, as the Novgorods struggled for influence over the upper Volga principalities. As Nizhny Novgorod gained the upper hand in that struggle, Tver fell gradually into its orbit, and by 1470s was virtually a domain of the Grand Principality. At the end of the decade, however, two occurrences rapidly changed Tver's status: the throne passed to the brilliant and ambitious Vasily Ivanovich, and the attack of the Horde precipitated a crisis in Nizhny Novgorod's politics. Vasily first exploited the Grand Prince's desperate need for troops to extract numerous concessions, then used Novgorodian silver to forge an alliance with the Princes of Yaroslavl and Moscow, and finally explicitly rejected the authority and legitimacy of the Grand Prince and, with Yaroslavl and Moscow, defeated Nizhny Novgorod's counterstrike. Since then, Tver has developed a great deal of influence in Yaroslavl and Moscow, and increasingly established itself as an independent player along the upper Volga. Tver remains less powerful than the Novgorods, but Vasily is still alive and energetic, and while Nizhny must keep an eye always on the Horde, and Veliky must watch the Danes, Tver remains largely free of entanglements.
Principality of Yaroslavl
Capital: Yaroslavl
Government: Decentralized Aristocratic Monarchy
Culture: Russian; Novgorodian Orthodox; almost entirely Novgorodian Slavic speaking
Nation Background: Yaroslavl was a rota principality in Chernigov, albeit low on the ladder, and was one of the last such principalities to remain in the system. In the early days of the Mongol dominion, Yaroslavl, having escaped a sack, did well, and its princes contested with Tver for the Grand Principality. Tver, of course, won that contest, but Yaroslavl's power remained intact, and it became a center for discontent with Tver's rule. When Mongol rule ended, it was Yaroslavl that organized the coalition that broke Tver's hold on the Grand Principality, and Yaroslavl that replaced Tver. However, without Mongol backing, the Grand Principality became little more than a prestige position. The struggle for real power was between its constituent principalities, and there Yaroslavl lost out. Sacked by Nizhny Novgorod in 1389, Yaroslavl declined precipitously, as power shifted south and east. As Nizhny Novgorod's power waxed, Yaroslavl fell under its influence. For most of the century, the Princes of Yaroslavl ineffectually attempted to navigate between the Novgorods and secure some independence. In the 1470s, Yaroslavl fell under the influence of Vasili of Tver, and allied with him managed to throw off Nizhny Novgorod's influence. However, Yaroslavl's renewed independence is precarious, dependent on the delicate balance between the Novgorod and Tver.
Principality of Moscow
Capital: Moscow
Government: Centralized Aristocratic Monarchy
Culture: Russian; Novgorodian Orthodox; almost entirely Novgorodian Slavic speaking
Nation Background: Moscow is a young principality. The city was founded only after the Mongol attack, and, until the Prince of Suzdal in the late fourteenth century established it as an appanage for one of his sons, had a wholly unremarkable history. Suzdal fell upon hard times shortly afterwards, and was conquered by Nizhny Novgorod, and, while Moscow remained titularly independent, thereafter its princes by and large meekly did the bidding of the Grand Prince. In the 1470s that changed, however, as the weak Prince was overthrown by a boyar conspiracy (engineered, some muttered darkly, by Vasili of Tver). His replacement promptly refused Novgorod's demands for troops, and then turned to Tver for aid against the Grand Prince's reprisal. With Novgorod defeated by the alliance of Moscow, Yaroslavl and Tver, Moscow, although comparatively weak, has taken an aggressive stance towards the Grand Principality and, alliance and Novgorod's propaganda notwithstanding, carefully maintained its independence from Tver's influence.
Grand Principality of Nizhny Novgorod
Capital: Nizhny Novgorod
Government: Aristocratic Monarchy
Culture: Russian with significant Tatar influences and a large Tatar minority on the steppe; Novgorodian Orthodox, with some Turkic paganism and Islam among the Tatars; Novgorodian Slavic and Tatar speaking
Nation Background: In the early eleventh century, the possessions of the Prince of Kiev came to be split into two principalities, with, broadly speaking, the territories northeast of the Dneiper falling to the Prince of Chernigov. Despite much rhetoric on the subject, and many attempts by one party or the other reunite the Rus, the split proved permanent. During the twelfth century, the center of the Chernigov principality shifted north and east, culminating in the shift of the seat of the Prince to Vladimir in the middle of the century. The rota system broke down, regionalism consequently increased, and by the middle of the thirteenth century, the Grand Principality of Vladimir had virtually ceased to exist as a unitary polity. It was saved, strangely enough, by the Mongols, who saw the Principality as the best means of maintaining order among their Russian conquests, and consequently provided significant backing to the Grand Prince's authority. When, after a century of Mongol rule, the Horde collapsed in the 1360s, Vladimir was thrown into flux. A succession of princes fought over the Grand Principality, and with both the rota system and the Horde gone, the search for an alternate source of legitimacy became paramount. Nizhny Novgorod, always among the closest of the Russian states to the steppe, sought an accommodation with a series of Horde successor states. None proved especially long lasting, but they legitimized Novgorod's claim of the Grand Principality, and provided military support. With Tatar military support, Nizhny Novgorod overcame and conquered its immediate rivals and turned to the west. There it engaged in a protracted struggle for influence over the Upper Volga with Veliky Novgorod, in which the new gradually gained the upper hand over the old. The appearance of the Horde on Nizhny Novgorod's borders in the 1460s, however, provoked a crisis in the state's leadership; they had based their claims to legitimacy on Tatar support, and now here was an honest-to-goodness horde. Relations between the two powers broke down in the 1470s, as Tokhta, continuing his attempt to reinstate the Mongol order, demanded tribute from Novgorod and turned his army towards the Khanate of Perm, once Novgorod's benefactor, now virtual client. Novgorod was victorious, barely, in the ensuring war, but in the aftermath saw its influence in the Upper Volga collapse and Veliky Novgorod clamp down on Nizhny's inroads in the north. Since then, Novgorod has stagnated under the ineffectual rule of Vladimir II, as central power has declined and the appanage principalities, once almost removed, have asserted themselves. But Nizhny Novgorod is still powerful, and with the right leadership still has the inside track to dominate Russia.
Tohkta Horde
Capital: Samarkand
Government: Decentralized Autocratic Khanate
Culture: Mishmash of various Turkic, Mongol, and a few residual Iranian elements; officially Hanafi Islamic, but plenty of pagans, Orthodox Christians and some Buddhists among the populace; lingua france is Jochid Turkish, but most people speak various Turkic dialects
Nation Background: The vast Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century were divided into subordinate hordes. Persia and Mesopotamia went to Temur's descendants, Russia to Guyuk's, and Central Asia to Jochi. Jochi's was the shortest-lived, falling into chaos around the end of the thirteenth century, and eventually divided between the Golden Horde of Guyuk and the Temurids. The Golden Horde was next. Devastated by plague, impoverished by the shift of trade routes away from the Black Sea, and under pressure from the Temurids, the Golden Horde spiraled into civil war in the 1360s, and by the end of the decade had ceased to exist as any sort of unified entity. In its place on the Russian steppe were a shifting patchwork of lesser Tatar khanates, none powerful enough to compel the others to submit. Central Asia then passed completely under the Temurids, who were themselves increasingly dominated by their Turkish servants, and were overthrown entirely by the Artuklu shortly thereafter. The Temurid pretenders fled to Central Asia, where without Persian resources they proved incapable of maintaining control, while the Artuklu, preoccupied with the Ardabilids, never attempted to expand int Central Asia. As in Russia, a variety of small, feuding post-Mongol kingdoms appeared in Central Asia. Half a dozen short-lived empires came and went in the space of little more than half a century. That situation persisted until the 1440s, when the brilliant young Mongol general Tokhta overthrew the last of the Temurids, who by that time ruled little more than Samarkand itself. Tokhta then ruthlessly refashioned the Temurids army and in less than twenty years systematically conquered the other kingdoms of Central Asia. Having secured a sizable power base, Tokhta's first inclination was to claim the Temurid mantle and march against Persia. Against the Ardabilids, however, he had little success. Checked in the south, he instead turned west and north, onto the steppe. There he had found more success, and by the late 1470s had conquered most of the splinter khanates, save Perm, under the protection of Nizhny Novgorod. When Tokhta came for Perm, it precipitated a war with the Russians, and he was fought to a standstill. After being stymied by Novgorod, Tokhta, now in his seventies, abandonded expansionism, having mostly reached the limits of expansion anyway, and turned to erecting a proper state to govern his vast empire. The peace imposed by Tokhta brought prosperity back to a vast swathe of territory. The trade routes across the steppe and through the Central Asian emporia, and buoyed by trade revenues Tokhta suppressed local interests and created a fairly unitary state. Tokhta, by then in his eighties, died in 1495; his grandson and chosen successor Mamai has so far proved a capable administrator of his grandfather's state, but has not yet been tested by external conflict, and it remains to be seen whether he can hold his vast domains together in the long run.
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