To the west, the Normans have taken southern Italy, and in the east the Turks have moved into Asia Minor after their decisive and terrible victory at Manzikert. The outer regions of the empire have been slipping from the Emperor's grasp for decades now. The differences between the thinking in Byzantium and the west were most profoundly highlighted with the Great Schism, the division of Christendom.Despite boasting the world's trade capital and home of Orthodox Christianity in Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire is well past its zenith and is now in steady decline. In fact, it is their reverence of the old ways that has brought the empire to a point of stagnation, in a world that has gradually kept moving on. It is a mere shadow because despite retaining the civilised ways of the Roman legacy, the Byzantines have done little to further it. On the faction rankings graph, my purple line creeps upwards while Turkish forces diminish.Byzantium is the shadow that remains of the old Roman Empire. I send emissaries into enemy lands to spread religious dissent. Soon, purple fingers begin stretching across the map, gradually reclaiming lost lands which were probably taken from someone else in the first place.
My empire is diminished but capable-although huge chunks of Anatolia belong to the Turks, it’s still possible to fight back. I start a new Crusades campaign, 100 years after Manzikert. I decide to make myself feel better by changing history, because games let me do that. Compared to the frothing barbarians of the West, Constantinople had guile and romance. It makes me sad, because the Byzantines were always my favourite faction, which is a bit like picking the least-worst racist in an inner-city chain pub, but also: I don’t care. Specifically, the battle of Manzikert, in which the once-supreme imperial army was crushed by the Turks. I’m drawn back to Medieval 2: Kingdoms after reading about the Crusades: a compelling period of history, rich in tales of dashing Norman princes, religious fervour and the taut diplomacy of the Byzantine Empire.
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