Chain 045: Europa Universalis

Chain 045: Europa Universalis
Location: Vienna, 2207 A.U.C. (1444 A.D.)
Identity: [-150] Aristocrat
Drawbacks: [+500] Import Save Game, Sunset Invasion

[200/1350]  Legitimate Insight
[400/1350]  Technological Exploitation
[600/1350]  Loyal Subordinates
[650/1350]  Respect of the King
[750/1350]  Blissful Ignorance
[950/1350]  Codes of Chivalry
[1350/1350] Beloved Tyrant

In the wake of the destructive war against the Aztecs, the Roman empire shouldered much of the burden of helping its neighbors rebuild. Not all, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the goodwill this bought the Romans would last through all of recorded history. The hordes to the east collapsed as they broke against the walls of the Kievan Rus and Bharat (that is, Buddhist India). The caliphs withdrew further into Africa, licking their wounds as they cast jealous gazes north at the Empire that stole their kingdoms, to their eyes.

Colonization became the word of the era. The silk road travelled through Rome, which was enriched by the trade that passed through it in both directions - as it was said, the silk road was paved by Romans - but there were other avenues. The strait that led to the Persian Gulf served as a shortcut for many, but there were others who served to explore - Magellan himself would be among them - but the alliance of European powers prepared themselves for the return of the Aztecs, in hopes that they could travel and strike first.

They shouldn't have worried about going to find the Aztecs themselves as much, however, for in 2197 AUC (or rather, 1444 AD) the Aztecs returned in force - and with terrible weapons. Brittania's longbows proved to be a match against the Aztec musketmen only under the most ideal circumstances, and the return of the war found everyone caught on the wrong foot. The Immortal Emperor of Rome once again took to the battlefield and this, it was argued, was the only reason that many nations did not fall immediately. Later historical Roman denialists would argue that they used stolen technology, just as they argue that the Immortal Emperor is just a series of men who claim to be the same one in some bizarre conspiracy, but it cannot be denied that the Emperor was seen in the air on angels' wings, striking down at the battlefield with divine wrath.

In truth, the only way that anyone survived the Aztec invasion was the appropriation of the enemy weapons and their reverse engineering. The losses to foreign diseases and weapons were equal in number to the first time around, the "black death" plague among the worst of the diseases, and (credible) historians argue that in addition to the total annihilation of the Irish and Portuguese people, the total casualties exceeded one hundred fifty million souls.

In time, the Aztecs were pushed into the sea; their technologies were appropriated, replicated, and European powers began to travel across the sea. Spain was especially prominent, even if sent a bloodthirsty general - Christopher Colón - across the ocean, where he pillaged the natives... of the wrong continent. No one was ever quite able to figure out HOW he ended up in Bharat. (This is why we can't have nice things, like Columbus Day.) The Roman empire provided auxiliaries to the other powers, but few of the holdings overseas were obtained by itself, with the notable exception of (the entire continent of) Australia - the one continent without notable amounts of hostile powers.

Rome gained a small portion of overseas trade because of its central location to other powers, as it always did, but was vastly more invested in wiping out the Aztec empire. Fortunately it was not alone in this - many of those overseas had been oppressed by that brutal empire, and were more than happy to help the conquistadors put the Aztecs to the sword for their murderous ways. The Aztec empire was huge - stretching from Florida to Venezuela and Peru - but eventually the job was done, even if so many paid with their lives to end the threat at long last.

After all of that... though there was a bit of jumping at shadows, the European infrastructure slowly was rebuilt with the income that one gains from colonies, even if France and Brittania had something of a rivalry. Brittania might not have had the largest empire, of course, but it helped nothing when France helped America obtain its independence; shortly after, however, France had its own problems to deal with in terms of Napoleon. When his ambitions turned against Rome in an opportunistic attempt to "recapture France's rightful holdings", he found that they had taken the Aztecs' weapons and refined the muskets to something as deadly as French guns, and his offense was not nearly as successful as he might have hoped.

It's hard for a man to return from exile when a Roman honor guard was appointed to protect him from himself while he is under house arrest, however. The colonial era drew to an end with rumblings that perhaps not all of the Aztecs had been captured - but then, the world had been explored in quite a bit of detail. They weren't in the Americas, nor Asia, and they certainly weren't in Australia. What was left for them to hide in? The deeps of Africa? How likely could that be?