2 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Prologue 2: An Overview of the Known World

The last couple centuries saw the fall from grace of many nations, as well as the rise of several others. France, once a powerful Kingdom, is now surrounded from the north, the west, and the south by de Gael enemies, and it seems most likely that very little potential is left. Aquitaine, while losing several provinces in the split with Galicia, is still a nation to be reckoned with, especially with its dynastic allies Britain, Galicia, and Danmark. In Iberia, The Teutonic Order quickly became the top nation in the region after seizing Andalusia during a Crusade. Although the peninsula was nearly completely controlled by Muslims not 2 centuries ago, the Christian reconquest has nearly pushed the infidels entirely out. Now, only the small nations of Beja and Seville remain Muslim.

The HRE, which at its strongest covered all of Central Europe and most of Anatolia, is a shell of its former self. The dissolution of the Union between Germany of Byzantium ended in a fracturing of borders. The dominating power within the HRE is Lotharingia, which rose to great strength during the 1300's. It is closely contested by Carinthia and Bohemia. The current Emperor is Meinhard Billung of Genoa. At the moment, the Byzantines control much of Italy, Provence as a vassal nation, several holdings in Croatia, and its historical capital of Constantinople.

The Muslim world is full of mostly small realms, but Iraq, Turkestan, and Persia stand out as large kingdoms. The Abbasid sultans of Iraq led it through the chaos of the last century to become a power to be reckoned with. Turkestan lost territory since its height, but has managed to retain its Anatolian possessions; it current suffers from a strong independence movement in Anatolia. Persia, a nation not much is known about in Britain, has to deal with chaotic borders with Iraq and its neighbors to the East. It is the chaos of the last century in this region, as well as Iraq's and Persia's high trade taxes, that has made trade along the Silk Road much more difficult.

Russia, which was once dominated by the Mongol Empire, is a patchwork of Russian kingdoms and former Mongol nations. Catholic Rus, the dominant Russian power in the world, is next to the Sunni Bulghar, also of Russian culture. Perm recently converted to Sunni Islam but still has an Animist populace.

As Britain moved towards a more centralized government in the mid 1400's, the rest of Europe remains as feudal in nature as ever, with only a few exceptions; Switzerland and Lubeck stand as the only republics.

Religion in the world is fairly stable. Islam is still split between the Shia and the Sunni, but the Christian split of Catholicism and Orthodoxy has long been gone. Gdansk, the independent Pomeranian state, is the last Orthodox nation on Earth. To top it all off, Jerusalem is in the hands of the Christian Kingom of Jerusalem, which is ruled in a union by the King of Castille. However, although Catholicism has prospered unusually well in the last 4 centuries, the split between the HRE and Byzantium could spell danger for the future. The last Animist nations in Europe are still in Lithuania and Finland, although, as stated before, Perm's population is Animist.

What with the trading ways to the East hampered by taxes and the general chaos of the last century subsiding, the men of western Europe, especially in the Empire of Britain, look elsewhere for new paths to riches and glory...