Stories from the Chaos timeline

[Max Sinister]

In the other AH forum, I wrote some short story (or so) for (OK, almost) every block of the TL I posted. Forgot about this, but will add them here as well.

Link back to the TL's thread

[Max Sinister]

Beginning of a thread in the WWW [1] forum:

Genghiz Cohen:
I had this idea: Let's say, around 1200 a Mongol leader unites the various steppe people. Then he conquers the Choresmian empire and Northern China. His successors continue his work by conquering Song China, the Caliphate and Russia, even threatening Western Europe. (rest of post snipped) Comments?
(16. 6. 1993 CE, 11:34)

meisterhans:
Oh yes, of course...
(16. 6. 1993 CE, 11:48)

[1] WWW: Was wäre wenn (German for "what would be if...", or WI). A German-speaking forum for AH.

(OOC: This was an exception, since this is not a story from the file, but a piece I invented for an RPG adventure which plays in the Chaos TL. "Genghiz Cohen" is a character from OTL of 2015, where mankind knows how to jump to other TLs. The WWW forum is authentic, though.)


1240 CE, near the city of Otrar (Choresmian Shahdom)

Ogadai Khaghan sits in the steppe land along the Silk Road, drinking wine. He drinks too much, but he can't live without it, and he's still a capable ruler. He takes a look on the city which sits where Arys River flows into the Syr Darya. The riches behind its walls must be immense. If he only had a way to take the city without waiting for months...
But there's no time for wishing and hoping and dreaming. He's got news from his spies that an army of the Choresmians is approaching the army he leads himself. Two other armies are attacking the Empire meanwhile from North-West and South-East, preparing for a great Pincing attack on Samarkand. Ogadai is a sane man and doesn't start a war without being ready for everything. Especially here - his enemy, the Choresmian Shah has two million men available, and he himself only has some 200,000. But with the right strategy and tactics, a battle can be won even if the powers are so different. In the last forty years, Ogadai has learned every trick... and he knows, if he can take the great Empire in the west, he can take any enemy. It's too bad that his father Temujin can't witness this moment.

The battle can begin. Shah Jalal-ad-Din leads the Choresmians to the field. His riders are armed with longbows and scimitars. His army is about five times bigger than that of Ogadai (although it looks only three times bigger, since Ogadai has made his POWs put on Mongolian clothes, which makes his army appear larger), so there's nothing that could happen. There are some stories about how effective the Mongols fight, and how brutal they are (they're said to eat their POWs, and cut off their ears to count how many enemies they slaughtered), but the Shah is an experienced warrior himself and ready to take the challenge.

And then, hell breaks loose. This isn't an exaggeration; for some time, the Muslim soldiers have to think that the gates to hell have opened and Shaitan, the devil, is attacking them. Where there should be an enemy, they can only see a wall of smoke (the Mongols are burning hay and such), and from this wall arrows are fired with deadly precision. Many Choresmians die. But what's even worse are the explosions - fiery bolts that race into their rows and cause even more panic. There aren't too many who can still stand against this attack.

Even the Shah himself is impressed and shocked, but now when his men make the attempt to flee he regains his courage. "You cowardly sons of stinking dogs!" he shouts. "By the Beard of the Prophet, fight 'em, I say, fight!" He shouts loud enough that his throat hurts, but between the explosions the soldiers can't understand him. Many are already fleeing in panic.

Jalal-ad-Din understands the situation. He's got to show them in a different way. So he grabs the Green flag of the prophet from a fallen flag bearer, gives his horse the spurs, rides into the middle of his men, let's his horse rise on its hind legs and lifts the flag so everyone can see it. This time, he has more success. He manages to collect his scattered army, which takes some time, but then he is ready to await the next attack of the Mongols.

But now it seems something has happened. Nobody can tell why, but suddenly the Mongols turn back and flee from the battlefield, leaving lots of corpses of men and horses behind. The Choresmians start to cheer and scream. But the Shah is getting suspicious: Maybe it's another trick? So he keeps the main part of his army (if gruntling) back, lets only the most eager ones attack.

He was wise to do so. Just when the attackers think they can slaughter the infidels, the smoke curtain lifts, and now the complete Mongolian army becomes visible. Then their battlecry "Khu-khu-khu" sounds, and the arrows of the Mongols fall like rain on the Choresmians. Only few will survive this bloodbath.

It was no complete victory for Ogadai. Sure, many Choresmians died, but there are still many more alive than he has altogether. There'll be some more battles to fight - for his army, and the other two ones. Many battles... if he only gets enough time...

Meanwhile, the Shah is staying on the battlefield. His fallen soldiers have to get a proper burial. Some men are collecting the broken weapons. "What should we do with those?" some underling asks, showing some of the infidels' fiendish weapons.

"Burn them!" Jalal-ad-Din commands with a hoarse voice. "But be careful!" he adds. Who knows what will happen else... and a bit later, he can hear some explosions again when his men throw the strange weapons into the fire. This time, the explosion sounds less bad, not as blood-chilling as during the fight. If he could use them for himself...

[Max Sinister]

A thread from the WWW forum, which I found in the file (see first post):

meisterhans:
Can you find a way to unite late medieval China a bit earlier - let's say, in the 13th century?
(30. 6. 1992 CE, 23:29)

Ayanami Shinji:
I've checked the usual sources, and I found an Emperor Lizong, but there was nothing written about what he did. Does anybody know more? He was the ruler for a very long time...
(30. 6. 1992 CE, 23:37)

OT-DDR78:
*yawn* (filler)
(30. 6. 1992 CE, 23:40)

Henrich:
You have to know, Emperor Lizong of Song reigned South China for 40 years, but he was disinterested in governmental affairs and he delegated matters into the hands of the prime ministers. Sadly, because a competent emperor in his place could've helped Song China a lot.
(30. 6. 1992 CE, 23:56)

meisterhans:
[Henrich's quote snipped]
hmmm... industrial revolution, like that?
(31. 6. 1992 CE, 0:14)

[Max Sinister]

Excerpt from an Italian 11th grade schoolbook, chapter "Medieval history of the Islamic world", by Prof. Gianfranco Spacca, 1926, Institute for History at the University of Tunis, Italian North Africa.

Thanks to the victories of Shah Jalal-ad-Din the Shiites could get a firm grip on Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. Although the Sunni still made up the majority of Muslims in the world, the Shahdom of Choresm was definitely stronger than the second Muslim power, the Sultanate of Egypt, and thus became the leading power in the Muslim world. If its influence in arts and science didn't expand immediately to the other Muslim states, this can be explained by cultural and religious differences - differences that split the Muslim world in two halves...

While our Latin brothers in Iberia defeated the Moors and took back cities like Cordoba and Jaen, Islam reared its head again in another place, taking lands from the crusaders and the various Christian states in Asia Minor...

[Max Sinister]

Another thread from the WWW forum:

meisterhans:
I was thinking about how to give Ottokar Przemysl more power. His elder brother Wladislaw died 40 years old, so what if he lived only half that time? Then Ottokar would inherit all of Bohemia, and had a bigger base to expand his empire. And he wouldn't spend that much time abroad fighting pagans, but care more for his lands instead.
(8. 1. 1993 CE, 20:41)

Gladius:
You're talking about a very tricky part of history here. The last duke of Austria, Friedrich the Quarrelsome, made war with Bavaria, Bohemia and Hungary during his reign. Chances are pretty good that he might die in a fight against Bohemians - and in that case don't expect that his niece or his widow would marry any Bohemian ruler. Wladislaw also wouldn't have no heir, and his widow Gertrud could've married someone else, who'd inherit Austria then. Ottokar didn't want to marry the widow of his brother in our world, so I don't expect him to do it here. And besides, even in our world the other princes became suspicious because his family was quite powerful. If he reigned Bohemia and Austria all alone, that'd be simply too much. They wouldn't support him against Hungary, and unless half of the Hungarians suddenly died, he'd lose then. And they'd never give him even more power by electing him emperor.
(8. 1. 1993 CE, 21:18)

buschenschankler:
wzd [1] are you talkng bout
(8. 1. 1993 CE, 22:04)

OT-DDR78:
keep on boozing, moron
(8. 1. 1993 CE, 22:09)

Ayanami Shinji:
OK, seriously. The problem is that your POD would be before 1250 - in that year HRE king Wilhelm of Holland was elected, and even if this happened here too, it's anything but given that he'd die again 1256 fighting the Frisians. Thus no double election of 1256, and when it's time for the next one anyone else could win instead of Ottokar.
(8. 1. 1993 CE, 23:19)

[1] I think this should read "wzt" instead, which could be short for "Was zum Teufel" = what the hell.

[Max Sinister]

A newspaper's article, for this time:

Herzogsberger Allgemeine, 14. 8. 1886

Today, 600 years ago, the name-giver of our great city, Ottokar of Moravia and Carinthia, king of the Holy Roman Empire, died. Let us take this moment to commemorate him and his contemporary, Karl of Anjou.
[...] A smaller mind may think that there are some similarities in the character of those two men, but everyone else can clearly see how wrong this thought is. Where Ottokar selflessly administrated the lands of his much too early deceased brother, Karl didn't shy from using his brother, the rightful king of France, as a tool for his purposes. Where Ottokar fought valiantly against the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians, Karl thus helping the Muslims to get the upper hand in the following years. Where Ottokar carefully built up an empire, Karl simply grabbed everything which he could get [...]

(Sorry for the French-bashing. I wanted some text from the file about the one or other of the two, but that's the only one I could find. -Max)

[Max Sinister]

(from the private notes of a Constantine Notaras, during his exile in Florence)
Oh Lord, why hast Thou forsaken Thy people?
Although we are all nothing but sinners, why do we deserve Thy wrath?
Pray tell, what a sin did we good Catholics (he actually means what we'd call Greek Orthodox) commit that our world is falling apart?
All of Constantinople was praising you on the streets for a whole week, after you smiled on our last great emperor, the basileus Michael VIII. of the Palaiologoi, and let him retake the city of Constantine from the Latin heretics who defiled Thine churches, but then, the following decade was filled by strikes against the neck of our empire.
Not only did Thou take away our good emperor too early, it was also Thy will that the followers of Mohammed took our last possessions in Asia, so that this continent was lost forever by us, and following that, Thou did not stop the new emperor which name I don't dare to write down from committing the unforgivable sin of compromising with the Latin enemies and imposing the unification of our church with the western heretics.
We hoped and prayed, but we didn't know that the next century would bring us a fate even worse...
(This actually goes on for a whole page, but since he doesn't give us more relevant information, I decided to cut it. -Max)

[Max Sinister]

Sung China at the eve of Revolution - an analysis
by Walter August Robersohn, Universität der Großen Seen (UdGS) [1], Wolfsburg, 1991

In the second half of the 13th century, it became obvious that Sung China was at the verge of collapse. The general situation was quite similar to that of a certain European country in newer time:
- The state was burdened by high expenses;
- the taxes were as high as they could be without struggling the tax-payers;
- the country, traditionally working every available part of its ground, couldn't expand into unused territory (as Europe would do in the same epoch);
- the products of China, although desired in many countries, couldn't be sold as well as they were demanded because the many middle men along the trade routes made prices too high at the end;
- despite an unmatched high literacy of 30%, in the last few decades no inventions were made that could have put new life in the society, like the printing with metal letters or the steam machine;
- economical reforms couldn't be implemented, due too much resistance by the concerned groups; and even if a chancellor had dared to challenge them in order to save the country, he would have had to survive in the chaos of intrigues that was typical for the Chinese court - a challenge in itself for an able chancellor, if there was a one. He also couldn't count on the help of the emperor - neither the indolent Lizong, nor the indulging Duzong, nor the underaged Gongdi were the strong emperor a reformer would've needed.

In short, all available measures had to fail, given the situation. Other rulers, Asian ones too, would have tried to solve their problems simply by expansion at the expense of other countries, but this possibility was generally avoided by Confucianism, especially under the Sung, who already lost the Northern half of the country in earlier times and later even proved unable to defend successfully against its weaker neighbor Pagan. [...]

Under these circumstances, every government but an exceptionally competent one would have to fail; all they could do was trying to cut public spending, which would lead in the long run to a breakdown of the Chinese infrastructure, damaging the country even more.

Even if chancellor Jia had been successful with his unbelievable expropriation program, it's at best questionable whether the country would've been helped: Given the wide-spread corruption in the Sung administration, it's very probable that most of the money acquired by this desperate government action would've trickled in the vast bureaucracy. The dynasty would have survived a few years longer, but the damage caused in the countryside would have greatly hampered the rebuilding afterwards. [...]

At the end, one also has to remember: Even if Sung China had implemented successful reforms, all the work would've proved futile in the great catastrophe that was going to hit China only a few decades in the future...

[1]: University of the Great Lakes

[Max Sinister]

In the year of 1295, in the wealthy Hanseatic League city of Lübeck, a cog returned from Novgorod. Down this ship stepped a man who had left this city twenty-four years before, a man who had some tales to tell. Many of the merchants in the city had heard of the Novgorod Feudal Republic, and some had even been there, seen its paved embankments and clean streets, when Western cities are drowning in mud, but this man knew tales about cities they had never heard of. He told people about the mighty city of Vladimir, even farther in the East, about its many cathedrals and palaces of white stone; he told them about the mighty Volga river, the pagan Bulgars and Mordvins on its banks, and the brave Russian merchants who'd still dare to sail the stream down to the Caspian Sea, and even further, to the Empire of the Choresm Shah - a place so far away, that even the crusaders had never been there. He told about the giant cities of Samarkand, Buchara and Rages, some of them with more inhabitants then a little country. And if that hadn't been enough, he even presented stories about the land where the silk comes from, the unbelievable Tsin - tales that baffled everyone, tales that surpassed even the most daring fantasies.

Many people didn't believe him, although he presented the goods he had managed to acquire in the East - spices, incense, and silk; and centuries later even professors would write books where they proved (or not?), that he never could've been where he claimed to, that he only retold stories he probably had heard along his journeys; but whichever is true, it doesn't change the fact that only thanks to him, many Western Europeans learned first about those vast and rich lands in the East.

This man was Markus Poller, one of the men who were responsible for the start of Aventurism [1].

[1]: Aventurism is a mixture of a cultural epoch and the general zeitgeist, slowly starting to develop during about those years. It's generally about people dreaming of far, far away countries. -Max.

[Max Sinister]

Yet another thread from the WWW forum:

Gladius:
What if the Rum-Seljuk empire hadn't split in 1348?
(24. 5. 1992 CE, 17:08)

Max:
What do you people always have with those nations? If it's not Byzantium, then it's the Rum-Seljuks. Aren't there other parts of the world too?
(24. 5. 1992 CE, 18:39)

Stevan aus Budapest:
Max, why don't you occasionally write TLs instead making comments about countries with governments you don't like?
(24. 5. 1992 CE, 19:14)

(Sorry, I know it's very short. Next time, I'll do better again. -Max)

[Max Sinister]

The Beginning of the rise of the Republics and Oligarchies in 14th century Europe
by Ph.D. James King, University of Vancouver, Canada, 1826

At the start of the 14th century, several states in Europe already had republican or quasi-republican state forms, like the Swiss cantons or the North Italian states, Venice being the strongest among them. [...] Despite of the general trend of monarchs acquiring power, there also was a strong counter-trend, which led to several states adopting non-monarchal structures. Best example in the first half of the century is the Crown of Aragon, where the unpopular king Peter IV was toppled by the nobles, who made his nephew John a figurehead, while the real power was in the hands of a council. [...] Although at this time there were no means for the people to spread ideas as after the invention of the printing press, Aragon was only the first of several European states where a group of influential people imposed their will and elected a monarch who had to fulfill their wishes. [...] Note: I am not counting the Holy Roman Empire among these; although the Roman king was formally elected, the single states generally tended to strengthen the power of the princes, which led to a completely different development of the German lands.

[Max Sinister]

And yet another thread from the WWW forum:

meisterhans:
Is there a way to unite the HRE ASAP after Friedrich II?
(12. 10. 1992 CE, 13:14)

Stevan aus Budapest:
I don't think so - during the Interregnum the HRE has been so thoroughly divided that you could've re-united it only with the help of a superpower, which wasn't there. All the princes would compete with each other, and when one of them became too dangerous, the others would unite against him. The changing dynasties (Wittelsbach, Askanier, Luxemburg) did the rest - if the works of one Roman king are mostly undone by his successor, there's no hope that will change.
(12. 10. 1992 CE, 16:58)

Max:
See, that's why the HRE still sucks...
(13. 10. 1992 CE, 2:04)

Gladius:
And what if one of the mightier states in Europe (England, France, Castille) had acquired some lands in Germany, so he'd have to defend it, picking up one German princedom after the other?
(13. 10. 1992 CE, 18:39)

Henrich:
No, they were more busy fighting over the richest territories in Europe at that time, i.e. Flanders and Northern Italy.
(13. 10. 1992 CE, 20:17)

buschenschankler:
lets hava drink!!!
(13. 10. 1992 CE, 23:46)

[Max Sinister]

"The worst time of Chunkvo" [1] by Dmitri Kirillovich Grishuk, Chair of Sinology, Kievan University, 1763

For millennia, the Yellow Empire had reigned supreme in the valley of the two great streams, the Yellow and the Male [2] river. But still, there sadly were epoches when the great empire would fall apart, or even be ruled by foreign people, who could not appreciate Chunkvos greatness. Times when people believed the Czar [3] had lost the Mandate of God, when the rice fields wouldn't bear fruit anymore, when armies fought in bamboo forests, and the Dragon Palaces burned down. And the truly worst of all these times of change hit Chunkvo in the first half of the 14th century: After many decades, during which the government failed to pay the officials, and Nipponese pirates plagued the coasts, the peasants had to eat their seeds in order not to starve; then, generals and governors in the provinces stopped to serve the Emperor, and set up their many small princedoms; the ruthless Chin [4] invaded from the North, destroying any hope to save the empire; and when people would hope that things couldn't become any worse, the horror of the Black Death struck suddenly and depopulated whole provinces. This was the situation which the new dynasty had to save its people from.

[1] Term for China ITTL Russian (lit: Чункво), derived from Zhongguo
[2] He means the Yangtse, obviously mistaking the Yang in Yangtse for the same Yang as in Yin and Yang.
[3] The Chinese Emperor
[4] Jin dynasty

[Max Sinister]

(A magazine commercial from 1989)

Märchenwelt [1] Altpreußen [2]

Discover the world of the Teutonic knights! Live in their castles! Follow them on their conquests!

An area bigger than 100,000 square kms comes to life again! Detailed villages, forests, swamps!

Play a German, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian or Prussian character!

Three interesting careers possible: Knight, missionary, or Hanse merchant!

[1] lit.: "fairytale world", but means "virtual reality" ITTL. At least in German.
[2] lit.: Old Prussia

[Max Sinister]

"The horrors of the hordes of Ariq-Buqa", by Abbas, son of Tahmasp, of Rages, University of Isfahan, Shahdom of Persia, 1154 Anno Hegirae (1741 CE)

Never before in history has the Umma [1] been struck as hard as by the hordes of Ariq-Buqa.
The sultan Ariq-Buqa ruled a land bigger than the old empire of Choresm, maybe even bigger than the pagan empire of the Khitans [2]. And although there never were many of them, the horror couldn't have been bigger if the cursed Shaitan had opened the gates of hell. On the back of their horses, they could move through their empire in a few weeks, alternately striking against the West or the East. As the contemporaries would say, "it's better to die from the steel of the Assassins than being slaughtered like a lamb by the hordes of Ariq-Buqa". [...]
When he got news of their arrival, the province governor of Kashgar invited them into his palaces, as every good host would do. He didn't know what happened to him, when his guests would draw their weapons, slaughter him and all the people in the palace, for nothing but the fact that he had dared to put a flask of wine on the table, which they saw as a crime against the Qu'ran, thus starting their massacre. [...]
Before Ariq-Buqa came, the border provinces of Choresm were rich farmlands. After him, they were a desert like the Empty Quarter, and they're lying waste until the time of today. [...]
Allah may forgive them, and myself as I write this, but if there's anything in the world that can make a believer's faith shake, it's those horrors, and what's worse, that they were committed in the name of Allah, as if to mock them.

[1] Islamic Community
[2] He means China