Rome AARisen

The year is 1066.

In the West, as the last of the Viking raids died away, new kingdoms had already staked their claim to the legacy of Rome. France, England, Leon, Castile and Navarre all used Latin as the language of government, and laid claim to being successors to Rome in their various territories and domains. The king of the Germans, Heinrich von Franken, also claimed the title “Emperor of the Romans” as heir to the Western Empire.

However, in the East, the real Roman Empire remained. Romanion for the previous half century had been in a state of flux. Since the death of Basil II in 1025, a succession of weak emperors who barely remained on the throne had sapped her strength. The formally powerful Roman fleets had shriveled to nothing, and her elites openly plotted for the throne. The weak Emperor Konstantinos IX died in 1067, leaving the throne to his son, Michael VII.

Michael VII proved as inept as his father, and many hoped and prayed the Empire would be delivered by Prince Alexios Komnenos, a popular and powerful noble from Anatolia. Their hopes seemed dashed, however, when Alexios was wounded in distant Syria, and lay languishing in agony. As Alexios breathed his last, all eyes turned to his son, a 16-year-old boy, on whose shoulders the future of an ancient empire rested...

And this was only the beginning of a tale of glory, of corruption, of intrigue and valor, that would span centuries...

Rome AARisen is an extensive After Action Report/Story at Paradox Games Forums, based on the computer game Crusader Kings. The story follows the history of the Komnenoi dynasty, from their beginnings as provincial nobility to rulers of a revitalized Eastern Roman Empire. You can read it here.


 * Beware the Nice Ones: In the case of Basil III Komenos, this trope is oh so very true. Basil is honest and kind to a fault, but he is also responsible for bringing Spain under the Kommenid banner. Even after being wounded. Several times.
 * Big Book of War: Many Emperors write one of these. If running Romanion counts as war (it does), then nearly all the Emperors have written one.
 * Career Killers: There are many, many assassins in this story. So many that many emperors aren't even sure whose payroll the assassins will end up on.
 * Death by Origin Story: Alexios Kommenos, the ancestor of the Kommenid Emperors, dies in the first chapter of Rome AA Risen, courtesy of a Saracen arrow.
 * Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe, Demetrios Megos the first Kommenid Emperor is definitely an example of this. An adulterer (after his first wife's death) and warmongerer, Demetrios is nonetheless a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church, and is in his grandsons dreams portrayed as a holy messenger.
 * Historical Villain Upgrade: Similarly, Emperor Manuel, one of the most infamous of the Kommenids, is (rightfully) portrayed as a mass murderer, borderline sociopath, and trickster. However, the Rome AA Risen histories gloss over the fact that he knew that he was weakening the Empire, and the fact that he departed from it out of his own power.
 * Karma Houdini: Manuel Kommenos, one of the most infamous Emperors of the Kommenid line, a murderer, cheat, and adulterer, slips away from the Empire out of his own power, and becomes a monk.
 * Lethal Chef: After abdicating and leaving to a monastery, Emperor Manuel can't figure out what non-lethal spices make a good stew.
 * The Emperor: Several; this is the Byzantine Empire, after all. Even more numerous are would-be Emperors.
 * The Horde: Subverted; Romanion believes most foreign armies to be this, but none really count as a true "Horde". The closest are the Cumans, who aren't much of a threat after the first few chapters.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: At the author's last count, there is easily nearly two hundred characters, most of them related to the Kommenos family.
 * The Roman Empire: Kommenid Byzantium considers itself this from the very start, but later proves itself to be so after Rome is taken.