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Description

The Fall Of The Second Rome:

In this world the Sassanids won at Constantinople in 626 AD and managed to finish off the Byzantine Empire as a major power and secured their new empire which stretched from India to the Dardanelles. Islam was butterflied away but a united Arabia rose up and presented a threat that was beaten back by a Persia that was somewhat overstretched but not completely exhausted like OTL.

The Persian grip in Greece and Anatolia didn't last long, first with the breakdown in the Persian alliances with the Slavs and Avars and then when the Greek people of the empire rose up and successfully ousted their Persian rulers. Egypt even threatened to break away and was retained at substantial cost.

In Western Europe the Frankish kingdom still coalesced into a united state and managed to replicate the achievements and conquests of Charlemagne with the Frankish kings being declared the Emperors of Rome (in the absence of Constantinople). The Catholic Church spread throughout Europe and into even North Africa through Sicily and Iberia. The Frankish Empire unfortunately didn't last long and fragmented again but still left a new imperial legacy for the German and Frankish states that emerged. At the same time the Greek states that broke away from Persia also tried to do the same in a similarly fragmentary fashion.

Unlike OTL, a more united 'Holy Roman Empire' of sorts was formed through direct conquest at about the 12th Century. At the same time the Sassanid Empire fell apart when the Turks moved through the region.

Much like OTL the Turks set up their own empires in the area and converted to the local faith, picking up a derivative of Christianity that was combined with features of Zoroastrianism (duality of existence meets the redemption of the spirit). In Central Asia a Turkish larger steppe empire rose up that stretched from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan and shuffled things in Asia around. The new Dualist Christianity became popular in West Asia as the more stable nations in the western portion of the region rose to power and spread it through the region.

The world of 2016 has seen a lot of upheaval in the past few decades. Dualist Christianity has lost a lot of political clout with the decline of the Persian Empire whilst the split of the Catholic League has put Western Christianity on an east/west divide.

The Great Schismatic War, which shook Europe during the split of the Catholic League, damaged most of Continental Europe and the traditional leading nations of the League. This has left the Empire of Neuland as the leading power of Western Catholicism. A former German colony founded by the previous incarnation of the Holy Roman Empire, Neuland is a more cohesive and consolidated nation and has managed to successfully force the rest of the Western Catholic League into their orbit and take control.

Neuland, like their Holy Roman Empire forebears, were much more willing to assimilate the indigenous population of the New World. This means there are more Amerindians but the number of reservations (or protectorates) is much lower and indigenous cultures and languages have suffered a greater decline than OTL as a result of it.

They are a German speaking nation and their culture is primarily based on German and Nordic influences. As the new host of the Western Papacy (for the sake of the Papacy's safety) they also have heavy Catholic influences in society. The Church is subordinate to the state but the immense influence the new Papacy still holds over most of society means that religious issues tend to get involved in political ones on a regular basis. The government is a constitutional monarchy of sorts but the bureaucracy and social and political elite hold most power now. Representative democracy does exist on a small and local scale but the idea of extending the institutions to higher levels of governance is seen as society-wrecking levels of radicalism.

Western Catholic Europe is divided between several local powers that emerged from the violence, battered but unbroken.

The Kingdom of Francia is one of the younger powers that has risen in the wake of the Great Schismatic War. With the collapse of the traditional Holy Roman Empire, the various French and Franconian states were cobbled together into a centralised state. They have since managed to secure their place in Western Catholicism and now stand on the border with the Eastern Catholic bloc. French culture is still rather belligerent due to their need to assimilate some of the more independent nations that they united with. Their militarised eastern border and the fact that they stand on the front-lines of any future war with the Eastern Catholic states has also left them very militant and paranoid.

Tarrigonia, a break away from the Kingdom of Hispania which collapsed in the Great Schismatic War, has set itself up as a power in the Mediterranian. They not only appropriated Hispania's island and Italian lands but also expanded to seize other outposts including the Straits of Gibraltar.

Outside of Europe, the former colonies of the Kingdom of Angland have also begun to develop their own political clout. As the first to reach the New World they managed to grab the best bits for themselves first. Though their empire has devolved they stay within the Western Catholic system and have formed a relatively effective political and economic union in the wake of the rise of Neuland to their north. Mesicho, one of the most developed and strongest of the Anglish states, has even risen to become a colonial power of its own and is trying to strengthen the bonds between the other post-Anglish colonies.

Opposing the west is the eastern portion of the old Catholic League.

The current leader of Eastern Catholicism is the Empire of Russland. Formed in a very different manner to OTL, the 'Russian' states were converted to Catholicism and also ended up expanding east much earlier as well. The damage to the indigenous cultures of Central Asia allowed them to more easily advance as well. Their challenging of the Holy Roman Empire and the traditional Papacy was initially a political matter involving the curtailing of their own expansion and the attempted rise by their tsar over the German emperor in retaliation.

Russland is a rather cosmopolitan state. Concessions have been made to several of the component states of the empire that have been conquered and annexed by the Russ. The Russ language is still learnt throughout the empire as a secondary language in the non-Slavic territories and is generally seen as the language of business and politics.

The Russ tsar has more political power than his rival in Neuland but still has to defer to the bureaucracy and aristocracy on most decisions. The upper class of Russland is a very cosmopolitan collection of elite from across the empire with the descendants of the indigenous aristocracy having been incorporated into the Russ government. Compared to Neuland, they are more oligarchic and traditionalist with even more emphasis on the social hierarchy. The Eastern Papacy is based in Russland now and, like their western counterparts, is subordinate to the government. There have been very few changes from the policies of the old Papacy though with the exception of the political support they give to the Russ government.

Russland has managed to set up two separate 'Roman' empires to reinforce their position in Eastern Europe. Like the western states they have been heavily fortified but have begun to take off on their own.

The Rhomaion Empire is the united 'Greek' state that the Russ have helped set up and expand. Though it has assimilated a lot of Slavs and other groups that have migrated into the Balkans they are still a primarily Greek speaking state. Greek Orthodoxy has largely declined into obscurity with Catholicism now the majority faith. They acknowledge the Papacy in Russland as the centre of the church but primarily support the Eastern Catholic bloc for their own political ambitions. They are currently struggling to deal with their newly conquered Syrian lands which are staunchly Dualist.

The current Holy Roman Empire is a Germanic state based primarily in Poland and the eastern portions of 'Germany' that has still managed to secure much of Central Europe. The local dioceses have been forced to submit to the Russ Papacy despite the rise of nationalised churches. Sitting on the western border with Francia, the Holy Roman Empire is a very fortified and militant nation. Russ garrisons help secure the border and keep down the religious dissidents that have popped up in the area. The Russ are also investing in rebuilding German infrastructure and industry, a move that is producing some serious results. By this point the Holy Roman Empire is outpacing the other undamaged European states in Eastern Catholicism.

Though not technically Catholic, the Empire of Sina is another integral part of the Eastern Catholic bloc, especially after the Western Catholics tried to incite a revolution and coup. The current ruling dynasty allied with Russland centuries ago and has managed to safely maintained it without any particular losses on behalf of either partner. However, with the split between the Catholic states and the need for the Russ to consolidate their sphere of influence, Sina's position in relation to Russland's has become much more subordinate. The True Faith Rebellion in the south has forced Sina deeper into Russland's orbit and the emperor is becoming much more concerned about the demands the Russ tsar is making of his nation for the sake of political solidarity against Neuland.

Separate from this conflict is the Dualist sphere, a rough region where the Dualist states have managed to remain independent of Catholic imperialism. Over the last few centuries they found themselves being forced into a smaller and smaller area as the Catholics conquered the peripheries of their empires.

The Persian Empire has always expanded and declined within the Middle East. Infamous as the primary Dualist state, at their height they stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and into Egypt, Southern Arabia and parts of East Africa. However, after over a century of being outpaced by the Catholic League, they have lost most of their old empire to secession and slow conquest and been forced into their core territories. This political and economic decline (excepting the oil companies of course) has also created a lot of instability in the Persian Empire. By this point revolutionary groups have begun to emerge throughout much of the empire, some of them wanting to secede whilst others want to overthrow the government in its entirety.

The government is a more traditional absolute monarchy that was in the process of modernisation before the last major war with the Catholic League led to the loss of their colonies and other vital territories. Reforms are under-way in both the government and the economy to make both more efficient but the current shah is facing a lot of resistance to the changes. The instability is also hampering the government's ability to enact these reforms which has raised the costs of such measures even further.

Despite becoming increasingly invaluable for their oil, the Dualist states of Arabia are still mostly independent. Their wars of secession from Persia have given a boost to Arab nationalism and the Malikdom of Umann, as one of the stronger Arab nations, is looking to become a new regional power.

This world is at about the same level of technology as OTL 1930s. The Great Schismatic War was one of the first massive mechanised wars and split Europe with massive lines of fortified trenches defended by new-fangled machine guns and breech-loading artillery. Tanks and military aeroplanes also saw their introduction in that war and both sides have only been trying to make them more sophisticated. Despite the power of the Catholic League, the League has often been divided in the past and religious dissent has frequently taken place, requiring the development of new weapons. Much of the world has banned chemical and biological weapons (developed in a much more simplistic form earlier than OTL) but there is no proper regulation on their possible production.

On the domestic the automobile industry didn't receive as much popularisation as OTL and so cars remain a thing for the wealthy (and rural families who need the mobility). Tractors, transport lorries and other more practical variants however have taken off a lot more readily. Trains, trams and buses are still popular forms of public transportation and a burgeoning commercial airline industry has been operating for years. A lack of Hindenburg-esque disasters also means that Zeppelins are still available for those who want a more luxurious 'cruise-liner' style flight. Of course they're no longer used by the military anymore, they learnt that lesson.

Scientists in both Catholic blocs have been tinkering around with nuclear physics. The concept of splitting the atom to produce a weapon has been pursued for some time and finally, after years of research, progress is really being made.

Description

The Fall Of The Second Rome:

In this world the Sassanids won at Constantinople in 626 AD and managed to finish off the Byzantine Empire as a major power and secured their new empire which stretched from India to the Dardanelles. Islam was butterflied away but a united Arabia rose up and presented a threat that was beaten back by a Persia that was somewhat overstretched but not completely exhausted like OTL.

The Persian grip in Greece and Anatolia didn't last long, first with the breakdown in the Persian alliances with the Slavs and Avars and then when the Greek people of the empire rose up and successfully ousted their Persian rulers. Egypt even threatened to break away and was retained at substantial cost.

In Western Europe the Frankish kingdom still coalesced into a united state and managed to replicate the achievements and conquests of Charlemagne with the Frankish kings being declared the Emperors of Rome (in the absence of Constantinople). The Catholic Church spread throughout Europe and into even North Africa through Sicily and Iberia. The Frankish Empire unfortunately didn't last long and fragmented again but still left a new imperial legacy for the German and Frankish states that emerged. At the same time the Greek states that broke away from Persia also tried to do the same in a similarly fragmentary fashion.

Unlike OTL, a more united 'Holy Roman Empire' of sorts was formed through direct conquest at about the 12th Century. At the same time the Sassanid Empire fell apart when the Turks moved through the region.

Much like OTL the Turks set up their own empires in the area and converted to the local faith, picking up a derivative of Christianity that was combined with features of Zoroastrianism (duality of existence meets the redemption of the spirit). In Central Asia a Turkish larger steppe empire rose up that stretched from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan and shuffled things in Asia around. The new Dualist Christianity became popular in West Asia as the more stable nations in the western portion of the region rose to power and spread it through the region.

The world of 2016 has seen a lot of upheaval in the past few decades. Dualist Christianity has lost a lot of political clout with the decline of the Persian Empire whilst the split of the Catholic League has put Western Christianity on an east/west divide.

The Great Schismatic War, which shook Europe during the split of the Catholic League, damaged most of Continental Europe and the traditional leading nations of the League. This has left the Empire of Neuland as the leading power of Western Catholicism. A former German colony founded by the previous incarnation of the Holy Roman Empire, Neuland is a more cohesive and consolidated nation and has managed to successfully force the rest of the Western Catholic League into their orbit and take control.

Neuland, like their Holy Roman Empire forebears, were much more willing to assimilate the indigenous population of the New World. This means there are more Amerindians but the number of reservations (or protectorates) is much lower and indigenous cultures and languages have suffered a greater decline than OTL as a result of it.

They are a German speaking nation and their culture is primarily based on German and Nordic influences. As the new host of the Western Papacy (for the sake of the Papacy's safety) they also have heavy Catholic influences in society. The Church is subordinate to the state but the immense influence the new Papacy still holds over most of society means that religious issues tend to get involved in political ones on a regular basis. The government is a constitutional monarchy of sorts but the bureaucracy and social and political elite hold most power now. Representative democracy does exist on a small and local scale but the idea of extending the institutions to higher levels of governance is seen as society-wrecking levels of radicalism.

Western Catholic Europe is divided between several local powers that emerged from the violence, battered but unbroken.

The Kingdom of Francia is one of the younger powers that has risen in the wake of the Great Schismatic War. With the collapse of the traditional Holy Roman Empire, the various French and Franconian states were cobbled together into a centralised state. They have since managed to secure their place in Western Catholicism and now stand on the border with the Eastern Catholic bloc. French culture is still rather belligerent due to their need to assimilate some of the more independent nations that they united with. Their militarised eastern border and the fact that they stand on the front-lines of any future war with the Eastern Catholic states has also left them very militant and paranoid.

Tarrigonia, a break away from the Kingdom of Hispania which collapsed in the Great Schismatic War, has set itself up as a power in the Mediterranian. They not only appropriated Hispania's island and Italian lands but also expanded to seize other outposts including the Straits of Gibraltar.

Outside of Europe, the former colonies of the Kingdom of Angland have also begun to develop their own political clout. As the first to reach the New World they managed to grab the best bits for themselves first. Though their empire has devolved they stay within the Western Catholic system and have formed a relatively effective political and economic union in the wake of the rise of Neuland to their north. Mesicho, one of the most developed and strongest of the Anglish states, has even risen to become a colonial power of its own and is trying to strengthen the bonds between the other post-Anglish colonies.

Opposing the west is the eastern portion of the old Catholic League.

The current leader of Eastern Catholicism is the Empire of Russland. Formed in a very different manner to OTL, the 'Russian' states were converted to Catholicism and also ended up expanding east much earlier as well. The damage to the indigenous cultures of Central Asia allowed them to more easily advance as well. Their challenging of the Holy Roman Empire and the traditional Papacy was initially a political matter involving the curtailing of their own expansion and the attempted rise by their tsar over the German emperor in retaliation.

Russland is a rather cosmopolitan state. Concessions have been made to several of the component states of the empire that have been conquered and annexed by the Russ. The Russ language is still learnt throughout the empire as a secondary language in the non-Slavic territories and is generally seen as the language of business and politics.

The Russ tsar has more political power than his rival in Neuland but still has to defer to the bureaucracy and aristocracy on most decisions. The upper class of Russland is a very cosmopolitan collection of elite from across the empire with the descendants of the indigenous aristocracy having been incorporated into the Russ government. Compared to Neuland, they are more oligarchic and traditionalist with even more emphasis on the social hierarchy. The Eastern Papacy is based in Russland now and, like their western counterparts, is subordinate to the government. There have been very few changes from the policies of the old Papacy though with the exception of the political support they give to the Russ government.

Russland has managed to set up two separate 'Roman' empires to reinforce their position in Eastern Europe. Like the western states they have been heavily fortified but have begun to take off on their own.

The Rhomaion Empire is the united 'Greek' state that the Russ have helped set up and expand. Though it has assimilated a lot of Slavs and other groups that have migrated into the Balkans they are still a primarily Greek speaking state. Greek Orthodoxy has largely declined into obscurity with Catholicism now the majority faith. They acknowledge the Papacy in Russland as the centre of the church but primarily support the Eastern Catholic bloc for their own political ambitions. They are currently struggling to deal with their newly conquered Syrian lands which are staunchly Dualist.

The current Holy Roman Empire is a Germanic state based primarily in Poland and the eastern portions of 'Germany' that has still managed to secure much of Central Europe. The local dioceses have been forced to submit to the Russ Papacy despite the rise of nationalised churches. Sitting on the western border with Francia, the Holy Roman Empire is a very fortified and militant nation. Russ garrisons help secure the border and keep down the religious dissidents that have popped up in the area. The Russ are also investing in rebuilding German infrastructure and industry, a move that is producing some serious results. By this point the Holy Roman Empire is outpacing the other undamaged European states in Eastern Catholicism.

Though not technically Catholic, the Empire of Sina is another integral part of the Eastern Catholic bloc, especially after the Western Catholics tried to incite a revolution and coup. The current ruling dynasty allied with Russland centuries ago and has managed to safely maintained it without any particular losses on behalf of either partner. However, with the split between the Catholic states and the need for the Russ to consolidate their sphere of influence, Sina's position in relation to Russland's has become much more subordinate. The True Faith Rebellion in the south has forced Sina deeper into Russland's orbit and the emperor is becoming much more concerned about the demands the Russ tsar is making of his nation for the sake of political solidarity against Neuland.

Separate from this conflict is the Dualist sphere, a rough region where the Dualist states have managed to remain independent of Catholic imperialism. Over the last few centuries they found themselves being forced into a smaller and smaller area as the Catholics conquered the peripheries of their empires.

The Persian Empire has always expanded and declined within the Middle East. Infamous as the primary Dualist state, at their height they stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and into Egypt, Southern Arabia and parts of East Africa. However, after over a century of being outpaced by the Catholic League, they have lost most of their old empire to secession and slow conquest and been forced into their core territories. This political and economic decline (excepting the oil companies of course) has also created a lot of instability in the Persian Empire. By this point revolutionary groups have begun to emerge throughout much of the empire, some of them wanting to secede whilst others want to overthrow the government in its entirety.

The government is a more traditional absolute monarchy that was in the process of modernisation before the last major war with the Catholic League led to the loss of their colonies and other vital territories. Reforms are under-way in both the government and the economy to make both more efficient but the current shah is facing a lot of resistance to the changes. The instability is also hampering the government's ability to enact these reforms which has raised the costs of such measures even further.

Despite becoming increasingly invaluable for their oil, the Dualist states of Arabia are still mostly independent. Their wars of secession from Persia have given a boost to Arab nationalism and the Malikdom of Umann, as one of the stronger Arab nations, is looking to become a new regional power.

This world is at about the same level of technology as OTL 1930s. The Great Schismatic War was one of the first massive mechanised wars and split Europe with massive lines of fortified trenches defended by new-fangled machine guns and breech-loading artillery. Tanks and military aeroplanes also saw their introduction in that war and both sides have only been trying to make them more sophisticated. Despite the power of the Catholic League, the League has often been divided in the past and religious dissent has frequently taken place, requiring the development of new weapons. Much of the world has banned chemical and biological weapons (developed in a much more simplistic form earlier than OTL) but there is no proper regulation on their possible production.

On the domestic the automobile industry didn't receive as much popularisation as OTL and so cars remain a thing for the wealthy (and rural families who need the mobility). Tractors, transport lorries and other more practical variants however have taken off a lot more readily. Trains, trams and buses are still popular forms of public transportation and a burgeoning commercial airline industry has been operating for years. A lack of Hindenburg-esque disasters also means that Zeppelins are still available for those who want a more luxurious 'cruise-liner' style flight. Of course they're no longer used by the military anymore, they learnt that lesson.

Scientists in both Catholic blocs have been tinkering around with nuclear physics. The concept of splitting the atom to produce a weapon has been pursued for some time and finally, after years of research, progress is really being made.