Not gonna lie, some of those assassins reminded me of Olaf Tordsson (I hope I got his name right), a Swedish mercenary from An Age of Miracles.
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No Terror of Justinian - Glory Instead! (The Roman Emperor Who Lost His Nose - A TL of Justinian II)
- Thread starter Sargon
- Start date
Thanks and glad you enjoyed it!
I'm very happy to hear you are finding this enjoyable and easy to follow too. Although there's a lot of characters in this story, I have tried to give each a bit of time for themselves to develop their individuality and it's nice to hear that's coming across in the writing, We will be seeing some more of others which have been introduced or mentioned in the story such as Justinian's mother Anastasia, Empress Theodora and young Tiberius in time as well, as I haven't forgotten them, and they do have roles to play in the story. And we haven't seen the last of Theophilos' rescue party for example by any means.
The two rulers are engaged in a large struggle across vast distances of territory with all the implications that has in terms of things going to plan or otherwise. The Umayyad Caliphate historically reached its apogee under Al-Walid so that just gives a great opportunity to have epic events under these two dynamic rulers take part, and thus is a chance not to be missed storytelling wise. Events of course don't happen in a vacuum. There can be a tendency in some works for one side to have all sorts of plans, and for the other sides to not be doing much. That can just lead to a one sided stomp, which can and do have their places in some contexts, but it is most interesting to have something where matters are more nuanced and less easy than that. Well, in this tale, plenty is going on not just between these two, but also within their domains and other states, and I have some material lined up for that as well. Such matters of statecraft and military operations aren't often easy and can be complex after all.
Nice to hear you are re-reading it all! Thanks and hope to hear what you think after you've caught up. Hope you enjoy the journey of the story once more.
Many thanks to all for the comments and support, as always please continue to add more if you wish. They mean a lot and are most appreciated!
Sargon
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You mean Walker's book? I mean, I've heard of it, but not read it. The assassins are all my own creation. Well, I might have Lando Calrissian as a small bit of inspiration for Dirk, but that's about it.
@Sargon Happy New Year to you and to everyone reading this ATL!!!
Happy New Year to all good readers of this thread as well!
Sargon
An Age of Miracles is another Byzantine TL made on this site, one of the more famous ones.
I hope they become recurring characters, btw
An Age of Miracles is another Byzantine TL made on this site, one of the more famous ones.
I hope they become recurring characters, btw
I feel really stupid now. Of course, I've seen the title of that TL here many times in the forum list. I should have realised! Alas, like a lot of good TLs here I should really get around to reading, I haven't as yet. It's just finding the time as I have several stories on the go and books piled up everywhere around me more than usual these days.
Aye, they will be reappearing at least in another part.
If people really like them, then they can appear more, so if that's what people want, readers of this thread, please feel free to say so.
Sargon
My only complaint about the last chapter, @Sargon , are the lack of maps showing the situation in 710, including the movements of Byzantine units at sea and then on land after they've put their targets under seige.
It looks like Justinian II is well on the way to reconquering most of the Roman African provinces.
Here's hoping Justinian doesn't manage to just do a boring full reconquest. This is already much much better than the Romans were doing OTL.
It would be nice to have maps I agree, and admittedly I have done a couple before for this story (although I'm not that skilled at map creation compared to some here, and especially the former member Diamond who's simply awesome at them). However with my constraints it was either get a new part out, or, well, more delays. We may get another map in time though as they are useful, but I can't promise that right at this moment.
Glad you enjoyed it all on a re-read! Well, it's true Constantinople has somewhat better defences, and other places do too, which may well prove of use. We'll see what happens soon.
Well, some of them at least. Heh, got to start somewhere. The amount lost over the decades to the Arabs is vast though and a lot of work, forces and treasure, which as the last part shows is an issue people have been considering, would be needed to recover more. The Romans can't be everywhere and are to some extent relying on some places not causing problems for them.
Given various historical manpower issues, that would be a matter which could well cause a number of limitations. He may do better than OTL but there are always turns and roundabouts when others have their own ideas going on at the same time.
Thanks for all the comments and support. Always appreciated!
Sargon
Someone just liked a post of mine here in this thread which reminded me of it, @Sargon , so when can we expect the next update please?
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